STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The No. 17 ranked Augustana baseball team will begin their NCAA DIII National Tournament run on Friday, May 19 when they take on the No. 15 ranked UW-Stevens Point Pointers to begin their stay at Regionals.
The Vikings wrapped up their season with a 38-7 overall record, claiming both the CCIW regular season and tournament crowns. Augie secured their second straight tournament title on Saturday with a winner-take-all 6-5 victory over Illinois Wesleyan in 10 innings at Swanson Stadium/Brunner Field. Trailing by a run entering the ninth, Matt Ozanic began the rally with a leadoff triple, later coming in on a sacrifice fly from Dymitri Kanellakis to push the game to extras. Following a clean inning from Addison Southwick, Ozanic came through again in the bottom of the 10th, pushing a single through the right side of the infield to score Zachary Vrbancic to notch the team's second trip in a row to the national tournament in walk-off fashion.
Five different Vikings claimed multi-hit efforts, totaling 12 as a team. Jacob Reusch topped the Augie staff with four innings pitched, and only two runs allowed while recording a strikeout. Southwick earned the win, tossing two complete innings in the ninth and tenth, with zero runs allowed and a strikeout.
Augie enters the four-team regional as the No. 4 seed and will face host and No. 1 seeded UW-Stevens Point on Friday. The No. 2 and 3 game will pit the Webster Gorloks (30-14) against the Loras Duhawks (29-15). All games will be played at Zimmerman Field in Stevens Point, Wis. The tournament format starts with a four-team double-elimination bracket in the regional round, followed by a best-of-three series in the super-regional round. Finally, the eight super-regional champions will advance to the 2023 NCAA Division III Baseball Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
UW-Stevens Point is currently ranked No. 15 in the nation and finished the year with a 29-11 record, winning the WIAC regular season crown. The Pointers' 15-game winning streak entering the WIAC Tournament last weekend was abruptly halted, dropping their opening matchup on Friday to UW-Oshkosh by a 5-3 score before bowing out of the competition on Friday with a 9-1 loss to UW-Whitewater. The Pointers hold the No. 1 seed entering the regional and will host for the second straight season at Zimmerman Field. Augustana and Stevens Point have met only twice, with the Vikings holding a 2-0 edge over the Pointers in the all-time series.
No. 2 seeded Webster enters the regional with a 30-14 overall record. The Gorloks advanced to the SLIAC Championship finals last weekend but lost back-to-back games to Spalding and finished as runner-ups. Webster opened their conference tournament with 20-1 and 3-0 victories over Eureka and Spalding, respectively, but could not defeat the Eagles again after they climbed their way into the title match. Augustana holds a 3-2 advantage over Webster in the all-time series, including a 2-1 record in the postseason, with triumphs in 2007 and 2013. The Vikings and Gorloks met during the regular season in 2022, resulting in a 11-9 victory for Augie.
Loras received the final regional bid and the No. 3 seed after winning the American Rivers Conference Tournament and achieving a 29-15 overall record. As the third seed in their conference tournament, the Duhawks went 4-0, defeating Wartburg and Luther on day one before upsetting No. 1 seeded Buena Vista on Friday and defeating No. 5 seeded Dubuque in the title game. The A-R-C tournament victory is the first-ever for the Duhawks. Augustana holds a 36-16 lead over Loras in the all-time series, with their most recent meeting resulting in an 11-8 defeat to the Duhawks on February 27, 2022 in Jacksonville, Ill.
Augustana begins its regional journey at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, May 19 against No. 1 seeded UW-Stevens Point.
