Sunday, May 12, 2019

North Greenville, Newberry awarded host roles in NCAA Division II Southeast Regional

North Greenville and Newberry are the top two seeds for the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional and will host subregionals beginning Thursday.

North Greenville's Website reports game times the the event and Ray and Bea Dillard Field will be announced Monday.  Newberry's games will be at the Smith Road Complex.

Fifty-six teams were selected for the tournament. The NCAA tweaked its regional format this season.  Four of the eight regionals nationwide will have two four-team subregionals. The Southeast Regional and three others are six-team regionals featuring two three-team subregionals. In past years, there was one regional site with six or eight teams competing over one weekend.

The two subregional champs in each regional meet in a best-of-three series May 24-25, with the winners forming the eight-team field for the Division II World Series in Cary, N.C., June 1-8.

North Greenville (42-9), the Conference Carolinas regular-season and tournament champion, enters the playoffs on an 11-game winning streak. The Crusaders will have a first-round bye while fourth-seeded Mount Olive (31-17) and fifth-seeded Lincoln Memorial (33-17) meet. Mount Olive and Lincoln Memorial received at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament.  The loser faces the coach Landon Powell's Crusaders in the second round of the double-elimination event..

Newberry (41-14) is making its first-ever appearance in the NCAA playoffs. The Wolves won the South Atlantic Conference regular-season title, but lost to Catawba in the league tournament final. Newberry earned an at-large bid on the strength of its season's work..

Coach Russell Triplett's team has a first-round bye while third-seeded Catawba (42-12) and sixth-seeded Young Harris (35-19) meet in the first round. Catawba qualified as the SAC Tournament champ and Young Harris won the Peach Belt Conference Tournament.

The Catawba-Young Harris loser faces the Wolves in the second round of the double-elimination event.. Newberry was 23-2 at home this season.

Peach Belt Conference regular-season champion North Georgia, which failed to advance from pool play in the conference tournament, was the only team among the top six (it was fifth) in the final regular-season regional rankings to fail to get a bid.

* North Greenville was 7-2 against other Southeast Regional teams this season: 3-0 vs. Newberry, 1-0 vs. Catawba and 3-2 vs. Mount Olive
* Newberry was 5-9 against other Southeast Regional teams: 0-3 vs. North Greenville, 3-2 vs. Catawba, 2-1 vs. Lincoln Memorial and 0-3 vs. Mount Olive
* Catawba vs. 6-6 vs. other Southeast Regional teams: 0-1 vs. North Greenville, 2-3 vs. Newberry, 3-1 vs. Lincoln Memorial and 1-1 vs. Mount Olive
* Lincoln Memorial was against other Southeast Regional teams: 1-2 vs. Newberry and 1-3 vs. Catawba
* Mount Olive was 6-4 against other Southeast Regional teams: 2-3 vs. North Greenville, 3-0 vs. Newberry and 1-1 vs. Catawba.

North Greenville Regional
Ray and Bea Dillard Field, Tigerville
Thursday, May 16
Game 1: No. 4 Mount Olive vs. No. 5 Lincoln Memorial, 8 p.m.

Friday, May 17
Game 2: No. 1 North Greenville vs. Game 1 loser, 4 p.m.
Game 3: North Greenville vs. Game 1 winner, 8 p.m.

Saturday, May 18
Game 4: 4 p.m.
Game 5: 8 p.m., if necessary

Newberry Regional
Smith Road Complex, Newberry

Thursday, May 16
Game 1: No. 3 Catawba vs. No. 6 Young Harris, 7 p.m.

Friday, May 17
Game 2: No. 2 Newberry vs. Game 1 loser. 3:30 p.m.
Game 3: Newberry vs. Game 1 winner, 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 18
Game 4: 3:30 p.m.
Game 5: 7 p.m., if necessary

Note: If the top seed wins Game 2, Game 3 becomes the first game of a best-of-three playoff between the top seed and the winner of Game 1. If the winner of Game 2 is the loser of Game 1, the loser of Game 2 will play the loser of Game 1. If three teams remain after Game 3, an alternate bracket will determine matchups. Source: NCAA.com

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