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Messiah To Face Penn State Behrend To Open NCAA Regional Play
Head coach Bryan Engle leads Messiah into its third NCAA post-season appearance in just his first year at the helm.

Newark, NJ — The Messiah College baseball team learned its NCAA Regional placement and opponent Monday, being sent to the Mid-Atlantic Regional to face Penn State Behrend College in first-round play Wednesday at 10 a.m.

Making its third trip to NCAA post-season play in program history, Messiah (27-16) helps to comprise an eight-team regional field, with all games being played at Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium in Newark, New Jersey.

“It’s great to be in the tournament, and we’re very excited to stay within our region,” said Bryan Engle, Messiah head coach. “This is the stage you hope to get to throughout the regular season, and we’ll look to play our best baseball in the coming days.”

Penn State Behrend (34-10) arrives after winning the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference Championship, the program’s second league title overall. The Behrend Lions claimed the region’s fourth seed — Messiah earned the five seed — with a slew of talented teams making up the rest of the regional field: 2007 National Champion and regional host Kean University (35-9) enters as the regional’s top seed, with second-seed Rowan University (30-12), third-seed The College of New Jersey (28-10), sixth-seed DeSales University (24-18-1), seventh-seed Keystone College (30-10) and eighth-seed Gwynedd-Mercy College (21-18) rounding out the field.

The region should provide Messiah a fresh look, as the Falcons met only TCNJ during the regular season, suffering a 9-3 home loss on Apr. 15.

A double-elimination format, a Messiah win on Wednesday would pit the team against the winner of the Kean—Gwynedd-Mercy match-up Thursday at 4:30 p.m. A loss in the first round would place the Falcons in the consolation bracket, with the team’s next game occurring at 10 a.m. Thursday.

Messiah has posted a 3-4 cumulative record in regional play following trips in 2003 and 2005. The Falcons have never won an opening-round contest.

A complete bracket of the Mid-Atlantic Regional is available here in pdf format. The official regional tournament website is available here. A look at the nation’s eight regional fields, including a detailed list of automatic and at-large berths, is available through D3baseball.com here.