SPARTANBURG, S.C. – UNCG baseball head coach Link Jarrett was named the Southern Conference's Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons as announced by the SoCon office Monday morning. Jarrett guided the Spartans to a 37-13 overall record and won the league with an 18-3 record in Southern Conference games. Jarrett was chosen by both the league's head coaches voting and was named the SoCon Sports Media Association's Coach of the Year.

Jarrett is in his sixth season at the helm of the UNCG program and has guided the Spartans to 35 or more wins for the third-straight season, the first time in program history that feat has been accomplished. He and the Spartans locked up the SoCon Regular Season Championship with a sweep of The Citadel with a week remaining in the regular season. This season, the Spartans have won every league series and swept four SoCon opponents. Overall, the Spartans won 12 of 13 weekend series this season

UNCG has consistently been one of the top offensive teams in the country during Jarrett's tenure. This season, his offense ranks second in the country in average, 16th in scoring, 11th in hits, first in triples and triples per game as well as on-base percentage. The pitching staff ranks 11th nationally with an average of 9.8 strikeouts per nine innings and the UNCG defense is ranks 13th nationally with a .979 fielding percentage.

The Spartans lead the SoCon in team average, hits, triples, on-base percentage, wins, saves, least amount of hits allowed and least amount of runs allowed and fielding percentage.

UNCG enters the Southern Conference Tournament at Fluor Field as the top seed for the second time since joining the league in 1998. The Spartans will take on the winner of the play-in game between the eighth-seeded Citadel Bulldogs and the ninth-seeded Western Carolina Catamounts at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

-UNCG-