HAVERFORD, Pa. – The automatic bid into the fifty-six team 2012 NCAA Division III baseball tournament, which Haverford College earned by winning the Centennial Conference tournament two weekends ago, has garnered the Fords a spot in the Mid-Atlantic Regional which will be played at FirstEnergy Park, home of the Lakewood BlueClaws, in Lakewood, N.J.
The Fords (24-17) are the No. 6 seed in the eight-team regional hosted by Kean College (33-10), the No. 2-seed. The double-elimination regional will run from Wednesday through Sunday, May 16-20.
The region's top seed is Keystone College (35-5). The rest of the region's tournament teams includes third-seed Alvernia University (30-12-1), No. 4-seed Ramapo College of New Jersey (31-13), fifth-seeded Neumann University (30-13), seventh-seeded Drew University (22-19) and Daniel Webster College (23-17), the No. 8 seed.
Haverford's opening game of the regional is Wednesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. against Alvernia.
Winners of the eight regional tournaments will advance to the double-elimination championship at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis., on May 25-29.
Haverford punched its ticket into the national tournament with a 3-0 run through the Centennial postseason tournament. The second-seeded Fords downed third-seed Washington College in the opening round, host and top seed Johns Hopkins University in the second round and Washington, again, in the championship game. Haverford averaged better than seven runs per game during its championship run.