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 on Friday morning at 10.

The four-team, double-elimination Cortland, New York 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 second-seeded Gulls and third-seeded Cardinals will meet in the other first round matchup on Friday afternoon at 1:30.

To follow all of the Cortland, N.Y. Regional Tournament action, please click on the link below for the tournament web page, which includes links to Live Stats and box scores as well as broadcast and ticket information. There are also links below for the Cortland, N.Y. Regional Tournament program and the NCAA® Digital Program.

Under the direction of MASCAC Coach of the Year 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 last 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.

The 2022 Bridgewater State baseball team was picked to finish sixth in the MASCAC Baseball Preseason Poll but the Bears defied the odds by going 17-4 against conference opponents to earn their 17th MASCAC regular season crown. The Bears then swept their way to the MASCAC Tournament title to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. Bridgewater also reached the 30-win plateau for just the fifth time in program history (1992, 1996, 2000, 2012).

Under Zackrison's guidance, six members of the Bridgewater State baseball team garnered All-MASCAC honors in 2022 including MASCAC Player of the Year, sophomore right fielder Jay Wladkowski (Norwood, Mass.), and MASCAC Rooke of the Year, freshman second baseman Scott Emerson (Peabody, Mass.). Graduate pitcher Matt Josselyn, junior pitcher Matthew Seavey, junior closer Tyler Dasilva-Medeiros and sophomore left fielder Joe Frechette. also earned All-MASCAC accolades.

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

The Gulls (36-7) also garnered an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament by claiming the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) title. Endicott is ranked 19th in the most recent D3baseball.com Poll. The Cardinals (30-14) earned their way into the NCAA Tournament after winning its second consecutive Empire 8 Championship. St. John Fisher received votes in this week's 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.

Cortland, N.Y. Regional Web Page | Cortland, N.Y. Regional Program | NCAA® Digital Program | BSU Baseball Notes (PDF)