McPherson, Kan. – The McPherson College baseball team has become the fourth Bulldog team to qualify for an NAIA National Tournament, joining the Volleyball, Men's Soccer, and Men's Tennis programs. On Thursday, the NAIA announced the field for this year's opening round games for the national tournament, and the Bulldogs were excited to see their name on the board, selected as an at-large team.
This has been a historic season for the Bulldog baseball program. They head into the NAIA opening round with an overall record of 36-14. They made it to the championship game of last week's KCAC tournament, going 2-2 and upsetting top seeded Oklahoma Wesleyan in extra innings in an elimination game. This will be the Bulldogs' first dip in the NAIA national tournament pool in program history, and they are one win away from setting a new record for total wins in a season.
The Bulldogs are in the O'Fallon, Missouri bracket, hosted by Central Methodist University. Four teams plus the Bulldogs will be making their way to O'Fallon for the tournament that will begin on Monday. Central Methodist, out of the Heart of America Conference is the top seed in the tournament, followed by William Carey University out of the Southern States Athletic Conference seeded 2nd, Benedictine Mesa University from the California Pacific Conference as the 3 seed, the Bulldogs are the 4th seed, and Doane University from the Great Plains Athletic Conference is the 5th and final seed.
The opening round tournament is a double elimination format with top seed receiving a first round bye. The Bulldogs will open the tournament on Monday morning, taking on the Doane University Tigers. The winner will get a date with the top seeded Central Methodist University Eagles later in the day Monday.
The Bulldogs match up with Doane University is the first game of the tournament at 10:00 am Monday. The two teams met back in February for a four game series played at Bulldog Park. The Bulldogs swept the regular season series, outscoring the Tigers 40-22.
The tournament stretches from Monday to Thursday, with the winner earning a trip to Lewiston, Idaho for the NAIA World Series hosted by Lewis-Clark State College. Next week's opening rounds will be streamed live at https://www.heartconferencenetwork.com/cmu/.
