Cortland Earns 30th Straight NCAA Baseball Berth, Will Host Regional May 19-21
Cortland Sports Information Department
The Cortland baseball team has received a berth into the 60-team NCAA Division III playoffs for the 30th straight season and the 31st time overall. The Red Dragons (32-11) will be the top seed and host of a four-team, double-elimination regional Friday through Sunday, May 19-21, at Wallace Field on the Cortland campus.
Cortland will play fourth-seeded St. Joseph's University (Long Island) (30-9) on Friday at 10 a.m., followed by second-seeded Ithaca College (28-14) versus third-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University (34-10) at 1:30 p.m. The regional will continue with three games on Saturday, starting at 8:30 a.m., and a championship round of one or two games Sunday beginning at 11 a.m. Ticket prices will be announced.
The winner of the Cortland regional will face the winner of the Bridgewater State (Mass.)-hosted regional in a best-of-three super regional May 26-27, with that winner advancing to the NCAA Division III World Series June 2-8 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The championship will be in Cedar Rapids for the fourth time (2019, 2021-23).
Cortland, led by 24th-year head coach Joe Brown, earned one of 17 NCAA "Pool C" at-large berths after finishing second with a 3-2 record in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournament this past weekend. The top-seeded Red Dragons lost in the championship game to second-seeded Brockport, 12-9, in 10 innings.
Cortland's run of 30 straight national tournament appearances (1993-2019, 2021-23, no tourney in 2020) extends its NCAA Division III record. The Red Dragons' streak also will become the longest active streak on any NCAA level. Florida State has made 44 straight NCAA Division I tournaments from 1978-2019, 2021-22), but that streak will end this year as the Seminoles are currently 20-30 and have been mathematically eliminated from qualifying for their conference tournament.
Cortland has won 16 regional titles (1995, 1997-2001, 2005, 2007-08, 2010, 2012, 2014-16, 2019, 2021). Of those, 15 sent the Red Dragons to the World Series. In 2019, Cortland hosted and won a four-team regional before losing in a super regional at Babson in the first year the regional/super regional format was employed. In 2021, Cortland won a six-team regional in Auburn, N.Y. to advance to the World Series as the NCAA playoffs featured a reduced field and temporarily reverted back to a regional/World Series format due to COVID-19 concerns. Last year, Cortland finished second in a four-team regional at home.
Cortland won the 2015 national title and finished second in both 2005 and 2010. The Red Dragons have also placed third nationally four times (1997, 1998, 2016, 2021) and fourth twice (2007, 2012) among their 15 World Series trips.
St. Joseph's (L.I.) earned an NCAA automatic berth for the second straight year after repeating as the Skyline Conference champion. The Golden Eagles are making their fifth NCAA tournament appearance, including a 2018 showing hosted by Cortland in Auburn (with Cortland defeating St. Joseph's, 9-7, in an elimination game that was moved to Onondaga Community College). Cortland leads the all-time series between the schools, 12-1, with the teams splitting a doubleheader on Long Island in 2022.
Ithaca won its second straight Liberty League title to earn an NCAA automatic bid. The Bombers are making their 40th NCAA tournament appearance. They won national titles in 1980 and 1988, the latter with current Cortland head coach Joe Brown as a member of the team. Ithaca leads Cortland in the all-time series, 86-51-3, dating back to 1930, but in NCAA play Cortland holds a 14-5 advantage. The last time the teams met in the postseason Ithaca defeated Cortland in a 2013 regional game hosted by Ithaca in Auburn.
Eastern Connecticut is the defending national champion and has won five national crowns overall. The Warriors won the Little East title for the second straight year to secure their 37th NCAA tournament appearance. Cortland is 5-3 all-time versus ECSU, including a 4-3 mark in NCAA play. The Red Dragons defeated the Warriors in the 1998 World Series (although ECSU went on to win the national title that year). The most recent matchup between the teams came in 2021 when Cortland blanked ECSU, 3-0, in an eight-team regional in Auburn.
2023 NCAA Division III Baseball Regional - at Wallace Field (Cortland, N.Y.)
Friday, May 19
Game 1: #1 Cortland (32-11) vs. #4 St. Joseph's (L.I.) (30-8), 10 a.m.
Game 2: #2 Ithaca (28-14) vs. #3 Eastern Conn. St. (34-10), 1:30 p.m.
Saturday, May 20
Game 3: Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2, 8:30 a.m.
Game 4: Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2, 12 p.m.
Game 5: Winner of Game 3 vs, Loser of Game 4, 3:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 21
Game 6: Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5, 11 a.m.
Game 7: Same teams as Game 6, if necessary
