REGIONAL PAGE

WESTERVILLE, Ohio – The Otterbein baseball team is locked and loaded for a third-straight regional appearance in the NCAA Division III Championships, scheduled to commence this weekend at various sites around the country.

The Cardinals, 26-16-1 overall and fresh off a second OAC Tournament title in three years, earned the league's automatic bid to the 58-team national bracket and will open against Case Western Reserve Friday afternoon at Art Murray Field on The College of Wooster campus. Game time is slated for 1:30 p.m.

Otterbein, seeded third, and No. 2 seed CWRU will be the second game while host Wooster and No. 4 seed Rochester (N.Y.) are scheduled to launch the four-team, double-elimination pod at 10 a.m. FULL BRACKET/SCHEDULE HERE

A new D3 format is being implemented this year, transitioning away from the previous eight-team regionals and instead going with 16 initial groupings. Thirteen of those sites will feature four-team pods while three others have two teams competing in a best-of-five series.

The 16 winners will qualify for the first super regional round in Division III baseball history, battling in a best-of-three series on campus. The winner of the Wooster Regional will meet whichever school emerges from the Adrian Regional up in Michigan, consisting of Denison, La Roche and Heidelberg and the host Bulldogs.

Eight teams ultimately advance to the World Series, scheduled for May 31 to June 5 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Otterbein caught fire down the stretch to prolong its season, winning eight-straight games as part of sneaking into the OAC Tournament as the last seed and then sweeping through across three days at Baldwin Wallace. The Cards, under the direction of 20th-year taskmaster George Powell, had six all-conference selections and have been spearheaded as of late by the 1-2 pitching combo of Collin Hoffmann and Johnny Putnam. All-American shortstop Ben Beachy hits from the top of the lineup and holds multiple school records, third baseman Connor Brett was the OAC Tournament MVP, and sophomore first baseman Luke Barber is already a 2x all-conference selection after leading the league in home runs.

Case Western (22-13) earned one of two "Pool B" bids in the tournament, awarded to independents or teams in a league without an automatic bid. The Spartans are making their fifth NCAA trip in program history, and first since 2016, all coming up 13th-year head coach Matt Englander. CWRU had seven All-UAA honorees this spring, including senior second baseman Rocco Maue, senior third baseman Jacob Kucia, and sophomore catcher/outfielder Jake Ryan on the first team. The two-headed monster of freshman lefty Nick Denove (6-2, 2.12 E.R.A) and sophomore righty Matt Levine (5-3, 3.06 E.R.A) leads from the mound.

Wooster, ranked No. 20 in the latest national poll, made the World Series last year and currently stands with a 26-12 record in the final season for legendary head coach Tim Pettorini. In his 38th year at the helm, Pettorini is the NCAA D3 active leader with over 1,200 victories. The Fighting Scots won a fourth-straight NCAC regular-season championship and then finished runner-up to Denison in a winner-take-all game to conclude the league tourney. Garret Crum and Dan Harwood are both hitting .400 this spring while Evan Faxon (6-1, 2.41 E.R.A) headlines a talented four-member starting rotation.

Rochester (28-15) played its way into the Big Dance after winning the Liberty League championship over Clarkson back on its home field. The Yellow Jackets, guided by Joe Reina in his 18th season, are back after missing the NCAA's by one game last campaign. UR features eight all-league performers, including a pair of hurlers on the first team in starter Garret Renslow and reliever Brendan Shamieh. Rochester will be traveling approximately five hours to Wooster.

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