Full Bracket & ScheduleLive Video CoverageLive StatsNCCAA Baseball Visitor InformationFresno Bee PreviewMASON, Ohio - Fresno Pacific is seeded #4 in the 10-team NCCAA World Series field after capturing the West Region's automatic berth with a doubleheader sweep of Azusa Pacific over the weekend.
The Sunbirds (33-19) are coming in red-hot having won 17 of their last 21 games and will be making their first national postseason appearance since 2011, their fourth overall since the program's inception in 2006. FPU is grouped in Pool A along with #1 Oklahoma Christian, #5 Bluefield (Va.), #8 Trinity Christian (Ill.) and #9 Shorter (Ga.). The Sunbirds open the tournament on Wednesday morning at 10 am local time (7 am Pacific) when they face Bluefield. FPU's day one opponent is an NAIA program from Virginia that won the national championship five seasons ago. The Rams went 33-17 to qualify for the first time since 2012, when they were eliminated in pool play.
Like FPU, top seed Oklahoma Christian, as well as #9 Shorter, are making the transition to NCAA Division II. OCU gained the top seed by winning the Central region with a 37-15 record and is in the midst of one of the best seasons in school history, qualifying for the program's first national postseason trip since 1972.
Shorter, at 15-34, has the worst record in the field but has wins against top-10 NCAA D2 competition such as West Florida and Delta State and is coming in on a hot streak. #8 Trinity Christian, an NAIA program out of Illinois, comes in with a 26-20 record and is making its first national postseason appearance since 2007.
Pool B is headlined by two more teams making the NCAA Division II transition, both from Tennessee, #2 Trevecca Nazarene and #3 Lee. Lee was a traditional baseball powerhouse in the NAIA, reaching the national title game twice in the last five years. It was Lee that eliminated FPU from the NAIA World Series in 2009, the Sunbirds' first ever trip to the World Series. Joining them in Pool B is #6 Toccoa Falls (Ga.), #7 Cedarville the tournament's host team, and #10 Lancaster Bible (Pa.).
The top two teams from each pool will advance to the semifinal matches on Friday, beginning at 5 pm. The winner of Pool A will play the runner-up from Pool B, while the winner of Pool B will play the runner-up from Pool A with the winners playing for the national title on Saturday at 1 pm.
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