Baseball Seeded Sixth in Harwich Regional
NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College baseball team is one of 58 squads which will compete in the 2018 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship, as announced by the NCAA early Monday morning.
The Mariners (30-8 overall) will be the sixth seed in the Harwich regional and will face third-seeded Keystone College (32-10 overall) in the opening round of the double-elimination tournament, which begins on Thursday, May 17. Game time is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at Whitehouse Field in Harwich, Mass.
Thursday's other games feature fifth-seeded Ramapo College (32-13 overall) against fourth-seeded Western New England University (31-13 overall) at 9:30 a.m., eighth-seeded Penn State-Berks (25-10 overall) against top-seeded UMass-Boston (34-8 overall) at 1:00 p.m. and seventh-seeded Suffolk University (25-17 overall) against second-seeded SUNY Oswego (26-12 overall) at 8:00 p.m.
Tournament action continues with four games on both Friday and Saturday, starting at 9:30 a.m. each day, along with two games on Sunday and one, if necessary, on Monday. The winner of the regional advances to the eight-team NCAA Division III World Series, which will be held May 25-29 at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis.
Mitchell was one of 40 teams in the field that qualified automatically by winning its conference championship. The Mariners, under seventh-year head coach Travis Beausoleil, went 3-0 to claim the 2018 New England Collegiate Conference Baseball Championship and earn the automatic berth. Mitchell is making its fifth overall NCAA appearance (2016, 2015, 2014, 2011) and fourth under Beausoleil.
Keystone, ranked 21st in the nation in the latest D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 Poll, punched its NCAA ticket by winning the Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) Championship this past weekend. The Giants went 3-1 in the tournament to earn their 10th straight CSAC title and are making their 11th appearance in the NCAA Championship. The game will mark the second meeting between the two programs.
2018 NCAA Division III Baseball Harwich Regional
Hosted by Mass Maritime Academy in Harwich, Mass.
1. UMass Boston (34-8)
2. Oswego State (26-12)
3. Keystone (32-10)
4. Western New England (31-13)
5. Ramapo (32-13)
6. Mitchell (30-8)
7. Suffolk (25-17)
8. Penn State-Berks (25-10)