SUNY-Old Westbury is sweating bullets waiting for the official release, and our projection won't make them feel better. Old Westbury athletics photo

The easy decisions have already been made and our committee decided to accept the results on the field. All 38 teams with automatic bids were in, and with that, our in-house D3baseball.com committee met for nearly two hours by phone to do the difficult stuff: select the 18 at-large teams, two Pool B and 16 Pool C, and place all 56 teams into eight regionals.

The results of NCAA's official selection committee discussions should be known by about 3 a.m. Monday morning. These are our projections:

Projected Pool B Bids (2 Bids)
Washington U.
Ithaca

Washington U. was put in by general acclamation. Ithaca was a fairly easy choice as they edged out Chicago based on strength of schedule (SOS) and regional winning percentage.  We all thought that we would be looking at Chicago in Pool C.

Pool C Bids (16 Bids)
In order of selection: St. Thomas, Washington and Jefferson, Alvernia, Chicago, Illinois Wesleyan, Shenandoah, Keene State, Ramapo, DePauw, Rowan, St. John Fisher, UW-Whitewater, Trinity (Texas), Emory, Concordia (Ill.), Linfield

The first seven teams were put in by general acclamation. The next six teams were fairly easy decisions before it became difficult. We favored Ramapo over DePauw based on SOS and although the decision about Rowan or St. John Fisher went long, it was no question that they would be our tenth and eleventh selection, in either order. UW-Whitewater went in followed by Trinty (Texas). Last year it was Texas-Tyler with a high winning percentage and a low SOS that we kept on the boards for a while but like the Patriots in 2011, everyone knew the Tigers would eventually make the grade and slip in as a Pool C bid, our 13th selection of the night.

The final three spots generated the most discussion. The deciding factor in our 14th, 15th selection was the quality of wins in region. Emory and Concordia (Ill.) had the quality in-region wins against regionally ranked opponents that the NCAA committees look for.

Down to a final selection and round and round we went while the benefits of Amherst, Old Westbury and Linfield were debated. When the dust was settled, it was regional host Linfield as our final playoff team. No doubt a 0-2 conference tournament record hurt Amherst and a .522 strength of schedule in New England or New York is not the same as a .522 in the West.

The seven teams left on the board when Linfield was put in were Amherst, Old Westbury, Huntingdon, Buena Vista, Neumann, Heidelberg, and UW-Stevens Point.

Now, the matter of putting these teams in brackets. Last year we minimuized the number of flights required but were surprised and delighted to see that regional teams deserve to be in the region in which they compete. We kept the top two seeds in region and after that minimized the number of flights required, but knowing the NCAA had money for six flights last season, we used that as a benchmark this time around. We also tried to keep teams from the same conference from meeting each other in the first round and this is the results of our efforts.

Our projected regionals and seedings
New England Regional at Mansfield Complex in Mansfield, Conn.
1. Wheaton (Mass.) (34-8)
2. Saint Joseph's (Maine) (37-5)
3. Trinity (Conn.) (32-9)
4. Southern Maine (26-17)
5. Western New England (33-11)
6. Bridgewater State (30-12)
7. Castleton State (33-14)
8. Daniel Webster (23-17)

New York Regional at FSC Baseball Complex in Farmingdale, N.Y.
1. Cortland State (35-7-1)
2. Farmingdale State (29-10)
3. Ithaca (26-8-1)
4. Misericordia (36-8)
5. St. John Fisher (29-10)
6. Rowan (30-13)
7. Haverford (24-17)
8. Skidmore (30-15)

Mid-Atlantic Regional at First Energy Park in Lakewood, N.J.                  
1. Kean (33-10)
2. Keystone (35-6)
3. Alvernia (30-12-1)
4. Ramapo (31-33)
5. Keene State (31-12)
6. Westminster (Pa.) (28-15)
7. Messiah (19-23)
8. Drew (22-19)

Mideast Regional at Don Schaly Stadium in Marietta, Ohio
1. Marietta (37-6)
2. Washington and Jefferson (35-8)
3. Adrian (35-8)
4. Concordia (Ill.) (33-12)
5. Wooster (27-16)
6. Manchester (25-19)

Central Regional at  USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn.
1. Washington (Mo.)  (28-12)
2. North Park (31-12)
3. Ill. Wesleyan (29-15)
4. DePauw (33-12)
5. Emory (26-12)
6. Webster (31-12)

South Regional at Captains Park in Newport News, Va.            
1. Birmingham-Southern (35-7)
2. Christopher Newport (30-7)
3. Salisbury (31-7)
4. Shenandoah (29-11)
5. Lynchburg (34-8)
6. La Roche (24-17)

Midwest Regional at Prucha Field in Whitewater, Wis.            
1. St. Thomas (Minn.) (34-7)
2. Wisconsin-La Crosse (33-9)
3. Chicago (23-12)
4. UW-Whitewater  (29-15)
5. St. Scholastica (33-9)
6. Aurora (36-8)
7.  Coe (27-15)
8. St. Norbert (26-11)

West Regional at Roy Helser Field in McMinnville, Ore.
1. Concordia (Texas) (36-9)
2. Trinity (Texas) (34-10)
3. Whitworth (26-13-1)
4. La Verne (25-14)
5. Linfield (25-15)
6. St. John's (29-14)

Stay tuned later tonight for the NCAA's official selections.