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| They were hardly a lock, but the committee found a spot for Webster in the field. Webster athletics photo |
The NCAA Division III baseball committee has announced the 60 teams that will compete in the 2023 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship. As is the new normal, four teams will compete in double-elimination play at 14 regional sites and two sites will have two teams which meet in a best-of-five series.
Winners of the 16 regional tournaments will qualify for the second super regional round in Division III baseball history, with the teams competing in a best-of-three format. The Division III World Series will be held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, one last time in 2023, heading to Eastlake, Ohio in 2024.
The committee elected to take Webster from Region 8, where we had taken UW-Whitewater from Region 9, Randolph-Macon, where we took Emory from Region 6, and also took Pacific where we had taken Chapman from Region 10. Based on the final Division III baseball regional rankings, which were released on Monday afternoon, it appears the final teams left at the table were: Colby, Rhode Island College, Rochester, Kean, Catholic, Emory, Wittenberg, Benedictine and UW-Whitewater. We believe Pacific was the last at-large team selected, meaning Chapman never got to the table, and that Emory was on the table from Region 6 after all the ranked teams had been selected.
The teams were announced via a selection show on Monday, as follows:
Regional at Johns Hopkins: Johns Hopkins vs. Penn State-Altoona, Randolph-Macon vs. St. John Fisher
Regional at Mitchell: Top seed Wheaton (Mass.) vs. Husson, Tufts vs. Mitchell
Regional at Cortland: Cortland vs. St. Joseph's (L.I.), Ithaca vs. Eastern Connecticut
Regional at Bridgewater State: Top seed Endicott vs. Bridgewater State, Middlebury vs. Johnson & Wales
Regional at Marietta: Marietta vs. Adrian, Mary Washington vs. Case Western Reserve
Regional at Misericordia: Top seed Salve Regina vs. Keystone, Misericordia vs. Washington & Jefferson
Regional at Denison: Denison vs. Beloit, Baldwin Wallace vs. Spalding
Regional at Aurora: John Carroll at Aurora (five-game series)
Regional at UW-La Crosse: UW-La Crosse vs. Bethany Lutheran, Buena Vista vs. Bethel
Regional at UW-Stevens Point: UW-Stevens Point vs. Augustana, Webster vs. Loras
Regional at Shenandoah: Shenandoah vs. TCNJ, Christopher Newport vs. Immaculata
Regional at N.C. Wesleyan: Top seed Lynchburg vs. Lebanon Valley, N.C. Wesleyan vs. Elizabethtown
Regional at Birmingham-Southern: Birmingham-Southern vs. Lewis & Clark*, La Verne* vs. Franklin
Regional at East Texas Baptist: East Texas Baptist vs. Cal Lutheran*, Pacific* vs. Trinity (Texas)
Regional at Arcadia: Arcadia vs. Susquehanna, Rowan vs. Brockport
Regional at Penn State-Harrisburg: Top seed Salisbury at Penn State-Harrisburg
* Teams flying in the first weekend.