INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference champion Birmingham-Southern College earned the league's automatic bid to the 2012 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship while Trinity University earned an at large bid to the field of 56 teams. Complete Tournament Field | Central Regional | West Regional
Birmingham-Southern (35-7) earned the No. 1 seed in the Central regional while Trinity (34-10) earned the No. 2 seed in the West regional.
This marks the first time since 2009, when Hendrix College and Millsaps College earned bids, that the SCAC placed two or more teams in the NCAA regionals. It is the sixth time in league history that two or more teams advanced to the NCAA regionals (1996, 2001-2002, 2006, 2009, 2012).
The Panthers will make their first Division III regional appearance in the Central regional, which is being hosted by fellow SCAC member Rhodes College. Birmingham-Southern is in its first year of NCAA postseason eligibility since the program reclassified from Division I.
A total of 56 teams will compete in eight double-elimination regionals and the winners of those eight regionals will qualify for the double-elimination championship at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis., May 25-29.
The Central (Millington, Tenn.) and West (McMinnville, Ore.) regionals are two of the four regionals that will feature six teams in a double-elimination tournament format. The other two six-team regionals are the New York regional (Farmingdale, N.Y.) and the South regional (Newport News, Va.).
The four eight-team regionals are the Mid-Atlantic (Lakewood, N.J.), Mideast (Marietta, Ohio), Midwest (Whitewater, Wis.) and New England (Mansfield, Conn.) regionals.
The Central regional includes: No. 1 Birmingham-Southern vs. No. 6 Illinois Wesleyan (29-15), No. 2 Washington (Mo.) (28-12) vs. No. 5 Webster (31-11) and former SCAC member No. 3 DePauw (33-12) vs. No. 4 Emory (26-12).
Birmingham-Southern posted an 0-2 record against teams in the Central regional. The Panthers dropped two games to Emory during the regular season by scores of 7-5 and 2-1 in 10 innings on February 10th and March 27th, respectively.
Trinity will make its third straight appearance in NCAA postseason play and the school's seventh all-time. The Tigers also appeared in the NCAA regionals in 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010-2012. With Trinity's first game, the Tigers will play in an SCAC record 22nd NCAA tournament game. Trinity has a 9-12 record in NCAA regional play.
The West regional includes No. 1 Concordia (Texas) (36-9) vs. No. 6 Saint John's (Minn.) (29-14), No. 2 Trinity vs. No. 5 Coe (Iowa) (27-15) and No. 3 Whitworth (26-13-1) vs. No. 4 La Verne (25-14).
Trinity tallied a 1-0 record against teams in the West regional. The Tigers defeated top seed Concordia (Texas), 3-2 on February 11th.