Matthew Personius (Photo by Michael Clock)
The SUNY Cortland baseball team has received a berth into the 56-team NCAA Division III playoffs for the 25th straight season and the 26th time overall. The Red Dragons (33-7) earned an at-large berth into the tournament and will be the second seed at the eight-team Mideast Regional at Ross Memorial Park in Washington, Pa., about 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh.
Cortland will play on Thursday, May 18 at 7:45 p.m. versus seventh-seeded DePauw University (Ind.) (31-11). The tournament opens Thursday with host and fourth-seeded Washington & Jefferson College (34-10) facing fifth-seeded Misericordia University (Pa.) (30-12) at 10 a.m., followed by top-seeded College of Wooster (Ohio) (35-8) and eighth-seeded Earlham College (Ind.) (29-12) at 1:15 p.m. and third-seeded La Roche College (Pa.) (34-8) against sixth-seeded Keystone College (Pa.) (31-13) at 4:30 p.m.
Tournament action continues with four games on Friday and four on Saturday, followed by two on Sunday and one, if necessary, Monday. Tickets each day are $6 for adults and $3 for students with ID and children over six. Children six and under are free. Tournament passes will be available for $20. In addition, there will be a $5 per car parking fee each day as the parking lots are owned by a local minor league team and not the host school.
The winner of the double-elimination regional advances to the eight-team NCAA Division III World Series, which will be held May 26-30 in Grand Chute, Wis. (near Appleton; south of Green Bay). The World Series will be in Wisconsin for the 18th straight year.
Cortland, La Roche and Keystone were all NCAA Division III World Series participants last year, with Keystone finishing second and Cortland tying for third.
The Red Dragons finished second during the regular season in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC). The SUNYAC postseason tournament at top-seeded Oswego was canceled due to the weather and the host Lakers earned the conference's NCAA automatic berth.
Under 18th-year head coach Joe Brown, Cortland reached the 30-win plateau for the 23rd time in the last 24 seasons. Cortland's run of 25 straight NCAA appearances is the longest active streak in Division III.
Cortland has won regional titles in 14 of the last 22 years. Cortland advanced to the World Series in 1995, five straight years from 1997-2001, as well as in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, and three straight years from 2014-16. Cortland placed second in the region in 1996, 2003, 2006, 2011 and 2013. In addition to the Red Dragons' 2015 national crown, they finished second nationally at both the 2010 and 2005 World Series, third in 1997, 1998 and 2016, and fourth in 2007 and 2012.
Cortland is being sent out of the New York Region for the first time in its 25-year run of NCAA appearances. The Red Dragons' previous NCAA regional showings have included 11 tournaments in Auburn, including 2015 and 2016, along with six in Colonie (1994, 1996-99, 2002), two at Farmingdale State (2009, 2012), two in Troy (2003-04), two at Ithaca College (1993, 1995), and one in Newark, N.Y. (2014). The only time Cortland has left New York State for an NCAA regional was in its first playoff appearance in 1981 in the Northeast Regional at Eastern Connecticut State (there was no New York Regional at that time).
Mideast Regional Tournament Page (includes links to stats, video, recaps, schedules, etc.)
2017 NCAA Division III Baseball Mideast Regional
at Ross Memorial Park (Washington, Pa.)
(hosted by Washington & Jefferson College)
Thursday, May 18
Game 1: (#4 seed) Washington & Jefferson (34-10) vs. (#5 seed) Misericordia (30-12), 10 a.m.
Game 2: (#1 seed) Wooster (35-8) vs. (#8 seed) Earlham (29-12), 1:15 p.m.
Game 3: (#3 seed) La Roche (34-8) vs. (#6 seed) Keystone (31-13), 4:30 p.m.
Game 4: (#2 seed) Cortland (33-7) vs. (#7 seed) DePauw (31-11), 7:45 p.m.
Friday, May 19
Game 5: Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2, 10 a.m.
Game 6: Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 1:15 p.m.
Game 7: Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2, 4:30 p.m.
Game 8: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, May 20
Game 9: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 7, 10 a.m.
Game 10: Winner Game 5 vs. Loser Game 8, 1:15 p.m.
Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 8, 4:30 p.m.
Game 12: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 10, 7:45 p.m.
Sunday, May 21
Game 13: Loser Game 11 vs. Winner Game 12, 12 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 11 vs. Winner Game 13, 3:30 p.m.
Monday, May 22
Game 15: Same teams as Game 14 (if necessary), TBD
Other Regionals (seeds in parentheses):
South Region Hosted by Averett University, Danville, Va.
(1) Salisbury, (2) LaGrange, (3) Rowan, (4) Emory, (5) Otterbein, (6) Roanoke
Central Region Hosted by Webster University in Sauget, Ill.
(1) Birmingham-Southern, (2) Washington-St. Louis, (3) Wartburg, (4) Webster, (5) North Central (Ill.), (6) Greenville
West Region Hosted by The University of Texas-Tyler, Tyler, Texas
(1) Texas-Tyler, (2) Cal Lutheran, (3) Centenary (La.), (4) Linfield, (5) Concordia (Texas), (6) Rhodes
Mid-Atlantic Region Hosted by Middle Atlantic Conference, York, Pa.
(1) Johns Hopkins, (2) Shenandoah, (3) Wheaton (Mass.), (4) RIT, (5) Alvernia, (6) Elizabethtown, (7) SUNY Maritime, (8) Lesley
New York Region Hosted by SUNYAC, Syracuse, N.Y.
(1) Oswego, (2) Southern Maine, (3) The College of New Jersey, (4) Tufts, (5) Castleton, (6) Ithaca
New England Region Hosted by Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Harwick, Mass.
(1) Mass-Boston, (2) Arcadia, (3) St. John Fisher, (4) Salve Regina, (5) Babson, (6) Suffolk, (7) Worcester St., (8) Penn St. Berks
Midwest Region Hosted by Wisconsin-Whitewater, Whitewater, Wis.
(1) Wisconsin-Whitewater, (2) Concordia-Chicago, (3) Adrian, (4) St. Scholastica, (5) Wisconsin-La Crosse, (6) St. Thomas, (7) Macalester, (8) St. Norbert
Teams advancing to the World Series will be seeded to determine first-round matchups.
(NOTE: The format for the World Series consists of two, four-team double-elimination pools. Winners of the two pools will play a best-of-three series for the title.)
