2026 Regional Previews

Only three teams have repeated as National Champions, Cal State Stanislaus, Rowan and Marietta. UW-Whitewater is looking to be the fourth team to accomplish the feat but there are many challengers with the talent to keep UW-Whitewater at three titles following the presenation of the national championship trophy in June.
d3photography.com photo by Ryan Coleman.

Following a second place finish in 2024 for UW-Whitewater, nothing but a National Championship would do in 2025 and that is what happened. UW-Whitewater hit their way with a series best ever batting average (.411) to their third national title. The defense of the Walnut and Bronze will be a challenge with graduation and the portal making a large dent in the talent that was on full display in East Lake last June. With rosters being turned over, there are more teams that are seen as favorites for a national title than any other year. Endicott, Salve Regina from The New England area are expected to compete for the trophy. Kean, Lynchburg and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps are also receiving first place nods in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25. There are more teams with the likes of Denison and Salisbury with excellent chances to be left standing alone when the season ends at East Lake. This will be the final DIII World Series to be held in the suburb of Cleveland as the Series moves east to York, Pennsylvania in 2027.

Previews: Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 3 | Region 4 | Region 5
Previews: Region 6 | Region 7 | Region 8 | Region 9 | Region 10

As UW-Whitewater has seen, rosters are being restructured. With the portal allowing players to move more freely between teams, more DIII players are making the move to DI after a big year. For some players their school has no graduate school so they are forced to look elsewhere. For others, they are not waiting for graduation as the number of players moving from one school to another is at an all-time high. The second factor that has sculpted rosters is the end of the Covid year of eligibility. When the season was ended due to the Covid emergency, all DIII baseball players were given an extra year of eligibility. Over the last five years, we saw six-year players assaulting the record book and players taking advantage of an extra year to get a graduate degree. We also saw that opportunities for freshmen were limited as seniors stayed for that extra year. Now that all these super-seniors are graduated, a youth movement is being seen across the nation.

There will be a new honor on the horizon: the Small College Baseball Player of the Year. There are plenty of D3 players entering the season this year that should make the Watch List when it comes out in March but here are our nominees to compete against the best of D2, NAIA, JUCO, etc. for this new national honor. Liam Daly, Purchase and James Domer, Pitt-Greenburg led the nation in batting average, batting .496 in 2025. Erik Sundgren led the nation in RBIs (81) and was a top power/speed player ending in the top 10 of the home run hitters and in the top 30 of stolen base leaders. Jackson Sgro had the highest batting average among freshmen and an OPS that matched the best of the players returning in 2026. Ben Prather, Centre might not have the top hitting stats but he was a top line pitcher as well, earning a spot on out best of the best watch list. For the pure pitchers, Evan Scully, Endicott was top 5 in WHIP and top 10 in victories on the season.

There are many things to follow as the season moves through the season openers, through the spring break trips, through conference seasons, through the tournament season and finally the NCAA Playoffs resulting in a National Champion. It should be a year to remember. Play Ball!