Green Knights Earn At-Large Berth to NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament

From Sports Information Director, May 11, 2009 | Baseball
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

DE PERE - St. Norbert College earned a coveted at-large berth to the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament, getting assigned to the Midwest Regional when selections were announced early Monday morning.

The Green Knights (23-13) will play in the Midwest Regional at E.J. Schneider Field at Oshkosh North High School in Oshkosh. St. Norbert, which received one of 13 at-large berths to the 54-team tournament, will face the College of St. Scholastica (35-5) at 4 p.m. Wednesday in a first-round game. The regional is a double-elimination format.

"We're obviously thrilled to be selected to the tournament," St. Norbert coach Tom Winske said. "The NCAA Committee has always looked at strength of schedule as an important factor and with the schedule we played this year I'm sure that was a big reason we were selected. I'm happy for our team we have another week to play."

St. Norbert defeated three Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference teams this season, splitting doubleheaders with UW-Stevens Point, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Platteville, marking the first time in program history that's happened. The Green Knights also played six games against Midwest Conference champion Beloit College and two games with Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament champion St. Olaf College.

St. Norbert is making is second NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament appearance. The Green Knights played in the West Regional in 2003, going 0-2.

In other first-round games Wednesday at the six-team Midwest Regional, St. Olaf College (29-12) faces Beloit College (28-7), while the University of St. Thomas (31-10) plays UW-Stevens Point (29-14).

The winner of the regional will advance to the NCAA Division III World Series which runs May 22-26 at Fox Cities Stadium in Grand Chute.