COLUMBUS, Ga-- The 2012 SSAC Baseball Tournament will kickoff Thursday, and the University of Mobile will play at 4 pm against Lee University in game three.

The Rams (25-23, 15-15) are the 7th seed, while the Flames (46-8-1, 26-4) are the 2nd seed and ranked 3rd in the NAIA Top-25. Lee finished a game behind 5th-ranked Faulkner for the top seed.

The tournament is double-elimination, with the championship taking place Monday at 7 pm or Tuesday at 2 pm if necessary. The winner of the UM/Lee game will face the winner of AUM v. William Carey, while the losers from the two games will face off. The winner's bracket game will be Friday at 7 pm, while the losers will battle at 1 pm.

Lee and Mobile battled Feb. 25-26 at Jacobs Field, with the Flames taking all three games by 3-0, 12-1 and 8-4 scores. Lee's pitching staff limited the Rams' hitters to ten hits over the three games.

Looking ahead, the Rams took 2-of-3 from William Carey in Hattiesburg, Miss., this season and dropped 2-of-3 at Auburn University-Montgomery. The three games against WCU were decided by a combined six runs.

At the plate, Ryne Phillips leads Mobile with a .371 batting average and Ryan Parazine leads with a .434 on base percentage. Braxton Hamil leads the way with 19 doubles and 36 RBI, while Ryan Waltman paces the team with six homers.

On the mound, Josh Blaylock and Shane Ikner each boast sub-3.00 ERA's out of the pen and have combined for nine saves. Michael King is 6-5 on the mound, while Ryan Hines has fanned 53 in 56.1 innings of mound work.

Fans can listen to Lee University's broadcast of the game here: http://client.stretchinternet.com/client/lee.portal#