SUGAR LAND, Texas _ The first-round opponent fot the University of Central Arkansas Bears at the 2018 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament will be a familiar one on Wednesday night at Constellation Field.

The fifth-seeded Bears (32-23) will open against the fourth-seeded Houston Baptist Huskies (26-28) at 7 p.m. in a rematch of last year's opening game. In fact, the Bears and Huskies will be playing for the seventh time at Constellation Field since HBU joined the conference in 2014.

The Huskies beat the Bears twice en route to the 2015 SLC championship. UCA beat HBU two out of three times in last year's tournament when the Bears reached the championship game for the third time in five seasons. The Huskies lead the overall series 10-7, including a 2-1 mark this season in a series played at UCA's Bear Stadium. 

The teams met a whopping six times last season, including three times in a regular-season series in Houston and three more times in the SLC Tournament. UCA finished 4-2 against HBU, including two run-rule victories, one being a 15-4 win in the SLC Tournament opener.

The Bears, who finished 17-13 in league play this season, have lost five of their last six games heading into the tournament after a season-high eight-game winning streak ended on May 12 against Southeastern Louisiana. UCA was swept at Nicholls State last weekend in Thibodaux, with the Colonels earning the seventh seed in the field. There is a precedent though as the Bears won the 2013 championship and played in the NCAA Starkville Regional after closing the regular season losing six of their final eight games before arriving in Sugar Land.

UCA will bring five All-SLC players _ plus two honorable mentions _ to the tournament, including the SLC Pitcher of the Year in senior right hander Tyler Gray, who is 6-1 with a 2.91 earned run average. He has set school strikeout records for both single game (15) and career (281) this season. Gray, from Fort Smith Southside, and junior catcher Wiliam Hancock of Little Rock Catholic, were first-team selections. Senior third baseman Rigo Aguilar and junior left fielder Hunter Strong were second-team picks and junior first baseman Tyler Smith was named to the third team. 

Honorable mentions went to senior shortstop Josh Somdecerff and senior designated hitter Colby LeBlanc. Smith, Hancock and Aguilar were also named to the SLC All-Defensive team. Gray is UCA's first pitcher of the year in the Southland.

The Bears feature the top defense in the Southland with a league-best .978 fielding percentage. UCA also leads the conference in on-base percentage (.397), doubles (104), runs scored (358) and runs batted in (327), is second in walks (266) and third in hits (545), batting average (.288) and slugging percentage (.407). Individually, Smith is first in walks (44), T.J. Black is first in sacrifice bunts (12) and Strong is third in hits (77).  Gray is second in strikeouts, fourth in opponent's batting average (.211) and fifth in ERA. 

In the opening game of the regular-season series, Gray, a two-time SLC Pitcher of the Week, struck out six and allowed three runs in 5.1 innings but did not get a decision in the 5-3 loss at Bear Stadium. The Huskies won Game 2 as part of a Saturday doubleheader 3-1 before the Bears took the series finale 5-0 behind a dominating one-hit, complete-game shutout by junior right hander Cody Davenport that earned him SLC Pitcher of the Week honors. 

HBU features the SLC Hitter of the Year in senior outfielder Matt Heck (.364, 9 HRs, 10 doubles, 45 RBI) and first-team All-SLC outfielder Spencer Halloran (.326, 9 home runs, 10 doubles, 39 RBI). Senior lefthander Matthew McCollough is expected to get the start for the Huskies, entering the tournament with an 8-3 record and a 3.02 ERA with 95 strikeouts.

The UCA-HBU winner advances to face the winner of No. 1 and defending champion Sam Houston State and No. 8 New Orleans at 7 p.m. Thursday. The losers of those games will face an elimination game at noon Thursday. The tournament championship is set for 6 p.m. Saturday, with an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament on the line.