INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. -- Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) tournament champion Texas Lutheran University earned its seventh bid into the 48-team NCAA Div. III Men’s Baseball Tournament, while Trinity University received its 13th bid into the championship field after receiving one of six at-large bids. Regional Bracket
After rallying from a five-run deficit in the top of the eighth, Texas Lutheran answered Trinity's game-tying run in the bottom of the ninth with a run of its own in the top of the 10th to take a 16-15 victory in the highest scoring championship game all-time, on Sunday May 13th, to claim the program’s second SCAC Baseball Tournament title.
Texas Lutheran (28-12) earned the No. 3 seed in the Whitewater, Wisconsin Region hosted by UW-Whitewater, while Trinity (28-7) secured the No. 1 seed in the St. Paul Minnesota Region hosted by University of Northwestern-St. Paul. Both are set to begin on Thursday, May 27.
Six teams will compete at eight regional sites. All regionals will use a double-elimination format. Forty two conference champions qualified automatically.
This is the second-straight national tournament that the SCAC has placed two or more teams in the NCAA regionals. It is the eighth time in league history that two or more teams advanced to the NCAA regionals (1996, 2001-2002, 2006, 2009, 2012, 2019, 2021).
Texas Lutheran will take on Penn State Harrisburg (28-7) for its NCAA opening round contest, the automatic qualifier out of the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC), on Thursday at UW-Whitewater at 5 p.m. CT. The Lions will be making their second-straight and third overall NCAA Tournament appearance. It will mark the first time that SCAC and NEAC have matched up in the Div. III Baseball Tournament.
The Bulldogs, under the guidance of first-year head coach Rick Heines, is making its third-straight and seventh overall NCAA Tournament appearance in program history. TLU is led offensively by SCAC Player-of-the-Year, senior outfielder Tyler Cauley, who enters the NCAA Tournament with a .319 (46-for-144) batting average, 47 RBI, 42 runs scored, 13 home runs and a .660 slugging percentage. Junior Joe Burch led the team with 10 starts, producing a 10-6 record, 55 strikeouts and a 4.45 ERA in 58.2 innings of work to pace the Bulldogs staff en route to being named First Team All-SCAC. Since joining the SCAC, Texas Lutheran has an 8-5 NCAA Tournament record, including a runner-up finish in 2018.
Trinity is scheduled to face Johns Hopkins (11-3) for its NCAA opening round contest, the automatic qualifier out of the Centennial Conference, on Thursday at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul at 11 a.m. CT. Coming off a regional title in 2019, the Blue Jays will be making their 24th NCAA Tournament appearance. Historically, the SCAC holds a 1-0 record against the Centennial Conference all-time in NCAA Tournament play as TLU knocked off Swarthmore, 3-2, in 13 innings in the 2018 tournament.
Trinity, led by head coach Tim Scannell in his 23rd season, is making its second-straight and 13th overall NCAA Tournament appearance. The Tigers are led offensively by four-time First Team All-SCAC outfielder Rafe Chaumette. Chaumette enters the NCAA Tournament with a team leading 60 hits and boasts a .385 (60-for-156) batting average, 41 runs scored, 20 RBI, 16 extra-base hits, eight stolen bases and a .538 slugging percentage. On the mound, first-year right-hander Joseph Chavana leads Trinity with five wins on the year, throwing 31 innings with 24 strikeouts, 17 earned runs, 34 hits and a 4.94 ERA on his way to being named Second Team All-SCAC. Trinity enters this weekend’s NCAA Tournament with an overall tournament record of 33-22 and two trips to the Div. III Baseball College World Series, including the 2016 National Championship.
Winners of the eight regional tournaments will qualify for the pool play double-elimination championship at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Friday-Tuesday/Wednesday, June 4-8/9, 2021.
