NEWBERRY — The Newberry College baseball team is currently in sixth place with a 32-17-1 record in the NCAA Division II Southeast Region rankings that were announced Wednesday. These are the official rankings that will determine the field for the NCAA Tournament.
Lander takes the number one spot with a 35-12 record followed by Columbus State in second with a 35-10 record. With a 34-11-1 record, Belmont Abbey is ranked third, USC Aiken is in fourth with a 33-14 record and Erskine is in fifth with a 35-11 record.
Catawba rounds out the seventh spot and a 31-17 record while Tusculum takes the eighth spot with a 32-15 record. Augusta is ninth in the poll with a 29-15 record.
Six teams from the Southeast Region will qualify for the NCAA Tournament. The tournament champions from the South Atlantic Conference, Conference Carolinas and the Peach Belt Conference qualify, along with the top three at large teams.
The top seed in the region typically hosts the regional tournament, with the regional champion advancing to the final eight at the USA Baseball Training Facility in Cary, N.C.
Newberry has played every team in the top nine with the exception of Columbus State. The Wolves took two games of a three-game series with No. 7 Catawba and won the only scheduled game with No. 9 Augusta.
Newberry split two game series with No. 1 Lander, No. 4 USC Aiken and No. 5 Erskine and also split a three-game series with No. 3 Belmont Abbey (one win, one loss, one tie). The only sub-.500 in-season record for Newberry against the regionally ranked teams is against No. 8 Tusculum, as the Wolves went 1-2.
The Wolves start their South Atlantic Conference Tournament run when they play Lenoir-Rhyne at 4 p.m at Smokies Stadium in Kodak, Tenn.