The University of Illinois Springfield baseball team picked up more than just an at-large bid for its sixth NCAA Division II tournament appearance and first since 2023.
The Prairie Stars (34-18) earned the No. 2 seed and the right to host its Midwest Regional bracket beginning Thursday, May 14 at 11 a.m. against No. 7 seed Indianapolis (33-21). No. 3 Wayne State (37-14) plays No. 6 Missouri St. Louis (33-20) in the other regional contest.
The double-elimination tournament runs Thursday through Saturday at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at UIS Baseball Fields with an if-necessary game slated for Sunday at 11 a.m.
Click here to see the bracket (listed in Eastern Time).
The winner out of Springfield then vies for a trip to the NCAA finals in a best-of-three super regional series. No. 1 seed Grand Valley State (44-8) is the other Midwest Regional host.
The UIS regional is a ticketed and credentialed event. Tickets can be purchased here, while games can be streamed at NCAA.com.
This page will be updated with results.
UIS was the No. 5 seed in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament, where it trounced No. 8 Rockhurst 20-1 before falling to No. 4 Drury 8-5 in single elimination. UMSL won the GLVC tournament 13-8 over Missouri S&T on Saturday, May 9.
Three Stars were tabbed all-GLVC first team under coach Chris Rodriguez:
SHG grad stars at UIS
Senior pitcher and utility player Rosie Bartletti led the UIS softball team both ways and collected all-GLVC first team honors.
The Sacred Heart-Griffin graduate finished 12-9 with a 2.07 ERA over 19 starts and 25 appearances this season. She struck out 122 and yielded 41 walks and 76 hits over 104 2/3 innings.
Bartletti additionally appeared in all 52 games offensively and posted team-bests in hits (55) and runs (51) with a .346 average. She had 13 doubles, four triples and three home runs.
She also ushered a school record for stolen bases in a season (49) and career (141). The softball team reached the GLVC tournament and finished the season 32-20.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: UIS baseball hosts NCAA regionals this week. Here’s who they’ll play
Reporting by Bill Welt, Springfield State Journal-Register / State Journal-Register
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