BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team will begin NCAA Division III Tournament play on Friday, May 20th as the Bears will compete at a four-team regional hosted by SUNY Cortland in Cortland, New York. The Bears are the number four seed in the regional and will take on top-seeded Cortland.

The four-team, double-elimination Cortland Regional will take place from May 20th to May 22nd at Robert H. Wallace Field on the campus of SUNY Cortland. Endicott College and St. John Fisher College round out the four teams at the regional as the Gulls and the Cardinals will meet in the other first round matchup.

Game times for the Cortland Regional will be announced later this week.

Under the direction of Head Coach Greg Zackrison, the Bears (30-13) are making the program's 15th NCAA Division III Tournament appearance and first since back-to-back trips in 2011 and 2012. Bridgewater captured the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) Tournament championship this past weekend to earn an automatic qualifier (AQ) to the NCAAs.

Along with the 2011 and 2012 NCAA Tournament bids, the Bears also made four consecutive trips to the NCAAs from 1989 to 1992, six straight from 1996 to 2001, and back-to-back appearances in 2003 and 2004. The 1996 team won the New England Regional and finished third at the World Series, while the 1997 squad captured the Mid-Atlantic Regional title and placed seventh at the finals.

Cortland is ranked 12th in the latest D3baseball.com Poll. The Red Dragons (33-10) won their 36th SUNYAC crown to earn the automatic qualifier.

The Cardinals (30-14) earned their way into the NCAA Tournament after winning its second consecutive Empire 8 Championship. The Gulls (36-7) also garnered an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament by claiming the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) title. Endicott was ranked 21st in the most recent D3baseball.com Poll.

Bridgewater and Cortland also met in postseason play back in 1997 at the Division III World Series in Salem, Virginia with the Red Dragons posting a 12-5 victory in an elimination game. 

A total of 60 teams will be competing in the 2022 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament. Four teams will compete at fourteen regional sites and two teams will compete at two regional sites. The four-team regionals will use a double-elimination format and the two-team regionals will play a best-of-five series. Forty-one conference champions qualified automatically.

Winners of the sixteen regional tournaments will qualify for eight, best-of-three series at the super regionals, Friday-Saturday, May 27-28. The eight super regional winners will then qualify for the pool play double-elimination championship at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Friday-Wednesday, June 3-8.

Release courtesy of Bridgewater State Sports Information