The WashU Bears earned an at-large bid into the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament. (Photo: Primo Greenway)
The NCAA announced the 64-team field for the Division III National Baseball Tournament on Monday, and though it didn’t receive one of the 41 automatic bids issued to conference champions, the Washington University baseball team did receive an at-large bid to play in the national championship tournament.
WashU, which ended the regular season with a 28-11 record and ranked No. 15 in the country, was named the No. 2 seed in the Danville Regional, where it will begin its hunt for a national title with a matchup against Aurora University, a team that did earn an automatic bid after winning both the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference regular season and tournament championships.
Aurora (31-12) will enter the NCAA Tournament having won five games in a row and 13 of its last 14. WashU, whose conference — the University Athletic Association — doesn’t have a postseason tournament, lost is last two regular season games, but won eight of its previous 10 games before that.
Shortstop Shane Pellegrino was one of five WashU players named to the UAA all-conference team. (Photo: Primo Greenway)
The Danville Regional will be hosted by Centre College in Danville, Ky. The four-team, double-elimination pod tournament will be played at Centre’s Gary Wright Field, this coming weekend, beginning with first round games on Friday, May 15.
WashU and Aurora will play the opening game at 10 a.m., with Centre hosting Piedmont in the second game of the day. The winners of those games will advance to a winner’s bracket contest, with the winner of that game advancing to the regional finals.
The losers of the first round games will meet in an elimination game, where one team will be done for the season, while the other will advance to a loser’s bracket game against the team that lost the winner’s bracket game.
The championship finals will be played on Sunday, with the winner earning a berth into the Super Regionals, which will be played at a yet to be determined site next weekend.
The eight Super Regional champions will advance to the National Championship Finals, which will be played May 29-June 4 at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio.
This will be WashU’s 14 appearance in the NCAA Division III Regionals. The Bears’ lone regional title came in 2021, when WashU advanced all the way to the D3 College World Series.
Image courtesy: NCAA.com
2026 NCAA Division III Baseball Danville Regional in Danville, KY
First Round – May 15
Game 1 – #3 Auroa vs. #2 WashU — 10 am
Game 2 – #4 Piedmont at #1 Centre — 1:30 pm
Elimination Game – May 16
Game 3 – Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 — 10 am
Winner’s Bracket – May 16
Game 4 – Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 — 1:30 pm
Elimination Game – May 16
Game 5 – Winner Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4 — 5 pm
Championship Round – May 17
Game 6 – Winner Game 4 vs. Winner Game 5 — 10 am
Championship Round – May 17 (if necessary)
Game 7 – Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 6 — 1:30 pm
Winner will advance to Super Regionals to play winner of Denison Regional.