Courtesy: Brockport, U of R and St. John Fisher Athletics
Both the University of Rochester and Brockport baseball teams earned at-large bids into the NCAA Division III Regionals and both will host four-team double-elimination pods. Empire 8 Champion St. John Fisher will travel to SUNYAC Champion Cortland.
The nationally-ranked No. 22 Brockport baseball team earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships and will host a four team regional Friday-Sunday at the Clark V. Whited Baseball Complex. The hosting rights marks the first time in program-history that the Golden Eagles will host NCAA Baseball Tournament action.
he opening game of the double-elimination regional tournament will feature Wheaton (MA) vs. Johnson & Whales University (Providence) on Friday at 10 a.m. Game two on Friday will feature Baldwin Wallace and Brockport at 1:30 p.m.
Day two of the regional will feature three contests at 8:30 a.m., 12 p.m., and 3:30 p.m. (two teams will be eliminated by the end of the day two). Day three will begin at 11 a.m. where a Brockport regional champion will be crowned.
The Golden Eagles recently finished as the runner-up at the SUNYAC Conference Tournament and currently holds a record of 33-9 overall. They entered this past weekend’s tournament as the No. 3 seed, defeating Plattsburgh and Oswego on their way to the tournament championship game against Cortland. Brockport’s 33 wins are the second most in program-history.
Brockport also recently landed four student-athletes on the SUNYAC All-Conference First Team in a release by the conference office on Monday afternoon. Tom Kretzler was named the Bob Wallace Player of the Year for the second consecutive season and Andrew Huffman was named the Don Axtell Pitcher of the Year. Kretzler (Utility), Huffman (Pitcher), Nicholas Pastore (Outfield) and Matthew Colucci (Relief Pitcher) each earned all-conference first team status.
Top-ranked Eastern Connecticut State University leads a powerful group into the Brian F. Prince Athletic Complex at the University of Rochester this weekend for the opening rounds of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championships. The games will be played on Towers Field on the Rochester campus. Action starts on Friday with games at 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.
The tournament is scheduled to run from Friday to Sunday. It features three automatic qualifiers and one at-large team. The Pool A (automatic qualifiers) are Eastern Connecticut State (champion of the Little East Conference), Middlebury College (champion of the New England Small College Athletic Conference), and Swarthmore College (champion of the Centennial Conference). The at-large team (Pool C) is the University of Rochester. The Yellowjackets secured one of 18 at-large bids after finishing second in the Liberty League playoffs a week ago.
This is the game schedule for the three-day period:
Friday, May 20:
11 a.m.
Gm. #1 – #1 E. Connecticut St. (39-3) vs. #4 Swarthmore College (22-17)
2:30 p.m.
Gm. #2 – #2 Univ. of Rochester (31-11) vs. #3 Middlebury College (29-12)
Saturday, May 21:
11 a.m.
Gm. #3 – Loser Gm. #1 vs. Loser Gm. #2
2:30 p.m.
Gm. #4 – Winner Gm. #1 vs. Winner Gm. #2
6 p.m.
Gm. #5 – Winner of Gm. #3 vs. Loser of Gm. #4
Sunday, May 22:
11 a.m. – Winner of Game #4 vs. Winner Gm. #5
If each team has one loss after this game, the teams will play again.
The NCAA announced a playoff field of 60 teams. This is one of 14 four-team pods playing a double elimination format. There are two two-team pods who will play a best three of five series. The survivors from this week will be placed into eight super-regionals (best two of three) next week. The winners of the super regionals will play in the NCAA finals at Perfect Game Field in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
This will be Rochester’s sixth appearance in the NCAA Division III playoffs and its third straight in full seasons. The Yellowjackets competed in 2019 at the College of Wooster and in the 2021 playoffs at Marietta College.
The St. John Fisher College baseball team won’t have to travel far for the opening round of the NCAA Championship as the Cardinals will make the short trip to the Southern Tier to square off with No. 21 Endicott as part of a four-team regional hosted by the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons.
Fisher earned its way into the Field of 60 after winning its second consecutive Empire 8 Championship on Friday and will enter play with a 30-14 overall mark. The Gulls, who own a program record 36-7 overall mark, earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship by virtue of their 4-1 win over Western New England College to claim the Commonwealth Coast Conference title on Saturday afternoon.
Cortland (33-10), which is ranked 12th in the latest D3baseball.com national poll, won its 36th SUNYAC crown over the weekend and will take on Bridgewater State (30-13), which captured its sixth MASCAC title after downing Massachusetts Maritime Academy, 7-4.
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