Cortland Earns Record-Tying 27th Straight NCAA Baseball Berth
This story comes courtesy of the Cortland Sports Information Department
SUNY Cortland Earns Record-Tying 27th Straight NCAA Baseball Berth Red Dragons Top Seed and Host of Four-Team Regional May 17-19 in Cortland
The SUNY Cortland baseball team has received a berth into the 58-team NCAA Division III playoffs for the 27th straight season and the 28th time overall. The Red Dragons (31-11-1) earned a tournament at-large berth and will be the top seed and host institution of a four-team, double-elimination regional Friday through Sunday, May 17-19, at Wallace Field.
Cortland will play fourth-seeded Alvernia University (28-14-2) on Friday at 10 a.m., followed by second-seeded Penn State Harrisburg (32-13-1) versus third-seeded Tufts University (29-9) at 1:30 p.m. The regional will continue with three games on Saturday, starting at 8:30 a.m., and a championship round of one or two games Sunday at 11 a.m. Ticket prices are to be announced.
NCAA Division III baseball has changed its tournament format this year to a regional/super regional format. The winner of the Cortland-hosted regional will face the winner of the Trinity (Conn.)-hosted regional in a best-of-three super regional May 24-25, with that winner advancing to the NCAA Division III World Series May 31-June 5 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The championship will be in Cedar Rapids for the first time this spring after a 19-year run in Appleton, Wis.
Cortland's run of 27 straight national tournament appearances ties the NCAA Division III record set by Marietta College from 1976-2002. The Red Dragons' streak is the third-longest longest active streak on an NCAA level, behind only Florida State (41 straight from 1978-2018) and Cal St. Fullerton (27 straight from 1992-2018).
Also, this will be the first time Cortland will host an NCAA regional on its campus. The Red Dragons played their previous NCAA regionals 12 times in Auburn, N.Y. (2000-01, 2005-08, 2010-11, 2013, 2015-16, 2018), six times Colonie, N.Y. (1994, 1996-99, 2002), twice in Troy, N.Y. (2003-04), twice in Ithaca, N.Y. (Ithaca College) (1993, 1995), twice in Farmingdale, N.Y. (Farmingdale St.) (2009, 2012), once in Newark, N.Y. (2014), once in Washington, Pa. (Washington & Jefferson) (2017), and once in Willimantic, Conn. (Eastern Connecticut St.) (1981).
The Red Dragons won the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) regular-season title but finished second behind Oswego in the SUNYAC postseason tournament as the Lakers earned the league's NCAA automatic berth. Under 20th-year head coach Joe Brown, Cortland reached the 30-win plateau for the 25th time in 26 seasons.
Cortland has won regional titles in 14 of the last 24 years. Cortland advanced to the World Series in 1995, five straight years from 1997-2001, as well as in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, and three straight years from 2014-16. Cortland placed second regionally in 1996, 2003, 2006, 2011, 2013 and 2017. Last year, the Red Dragons finished third in an eight-team regional that it hosted in Auburn.
Cortland won the 2015 national title and finished second in both 2005 and 2010. The Red Dragons have also placed third nationally three times (1997, 1998, 2016) and fourth twice (2007, 2012) among their 14 World Series trips.
2019 NCAA Division III Baseball Regional - at Wallace Field (Cortland, N.Y.)
Friday, May 17
Game 1: #1 SUNY Cortland vs. #4 Alvernia Game 2: #2 Penn State Harrisburg vs. #3 Tufts
Saturday, May 18
Game 3: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2 Game 4: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2 Game 5: Winner of Game 3 vs, Loser of Game 4
Sunday, May 19
Game 6: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5 Game 7: Same teams as Game 6, if necessary
