Baseball to Head to Salisbury, Maryland for NCAA Regional Tournament Play

By Jim Fenton

BRIDGEWATER, Mass. -- The Bridgewater State University baseball team will be in Maryland for its fifth straight NCAA Division III tournament appearance.

The Bears will open the 64-team tourney Friday (10:00 AM) against Salisbury University, which is seventh in the NPI rankings and the host of a four-team regional.

The University of Mount Union of Ohio will go against Hobart of New York in the other opening game at Donnie Williams Stadium.

The double-elimination regional continues with games Saturday and Sunday in Salisbury, Md.

Salisbury is also ranked seventh in the most recent D3baseball.com Poll and eighth in the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Division III Poll. Mount Union is 12th in the D3baseball.com Poll, 11th in the ABCA poll and #23 in the NPI rankings. Hobart is #45 in the NPI rankings while Bridgewater State is #62.

Under the guidance of head coach Greg Zackrison, BSU (30-8) earned its fifth straight automatic bid by winning the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference tourney on Saturday.

The Bears rallied for seven runs in the bottom of the ninth inning to stun Worcester State University, 12-11, in the final round. BSU would have played a winner-take-all game with the Lancers the next day had it lost.

The Bears will leave for Maryland on Wednesday morning and have a practice on Thursday.

BSU watched the NCAA Selection Show in a Tinsley Center conference room Monday afternoon.

Salisbury (32-9) is hosting for the fifth straight year and is bidding for a fourth trip to the Division III World Series in six seasons.

The Sea Gulls reached the elite eight of the nationals in 2021, 2022 and 2023, winning the NCAA title in '21 and finishing second a year later.

Salisbury is making its 26th straight trip to the NCAAs, the second-longest active streak in the division.

The Sea Gulls are on a 12-game winning streak and won the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference title for the fifth time in six years.

Mount Union enters the tourney 31-10 while Hobart is 30-13.

The Bears won 30 games for the fourth time in five seasons and eighth time overall.

BSU traveled to Cortland, N.Y. for the 2022 tournament, going 0-2, and hosted the 2023 regional, finishing 1-2.

In 2024, the Bears played in Harrisburg, Pa., and lost two straight and hosted again in 2025, losing a pair of games.

Bridgewater State made the NCAAs for the first time in 1989 under coach Glenn Tufts, who guided the Bears to four national tournaments.

Coach Rick Smith took the program to the NCAAs 10 times in his career including six straight appearances from 1996 to 2001. The '96 team reached the DIII World Series and placed third while the '97 squad also reached the World Series and finished seventh.