Previewing the DII baseball super regionals

Opening weekend of the 2026 DII baseball championship is in the books. Sixteen teams move on to the best-of-three super regional series to decide who moves onto Cary, North Carolina.

Here’s what to know about the final eight series before the DII baseball championship heads to Cary.

🏆⚾ Bracket, schedule, scores ⚾🏆

There were certainly some early exits. North Greenville, a top 3 team nationally for most of the season, is out. Cal State Monterey Bay, which, by the metrics, was No. 1 in the West Region the entire season, is also out. However, there weren’t many surprises. Francis Marion, which “upset” North Greenville, is a top 20 team and has one of the best offenses in DII. Northwest Nazarene, although a five seed, is the reigning West Region champs, so disposing of the Otters is not entirely shocking. No. 1 Pittsburg State was upset on its home turf in back-to-back games as super regional regulars, No. 5-seeded Augustana (SD), moves on to face Central Missouri. And while No. 7 UIndy reaching the super regionals may seem like a surprise, it is the fourth year in a row the Greyhounds have snuck into the supers, so it’s a surprise to very few that they are on the upset train yet again.

The rest is rather chalk, as they say. Five No. 1 seeds are alive and there are still six No. 2 seeds in the hunt. Half the remaining field is a battle of Nos. 1 vs. 2 seeds, as the bracket dictated it should be. Central Missouri, a No. 3 seed, is still alive in the Central Region because it is May, and of course the Mules are still playing.

Atlantic Region

This is a tale of two sides of the ball. West Chester has the edge at the plate and Millersville has the edge on the mound. Neither of these teams had to sweat much in the regionals; West Chester averaged 17 runs over its three games, winning those three games by 33 total runs. Millersville scored eight runs in each of its three games, and the closest any team got was four runs. 

West Chester and Millersville closed the regular season against each other, with the Golden Rams winning three of four. That flipped a switch for the Marauders, who have won seven straight, including the PSAC championship game over West Chester and three wins over top-15 Seton Hill. Matt Shamany and Eli Simonton have been hot in the rotation, which gave Rece Ritchey — who pitched 8.2 innings of one-run ball against West Chester in the PSAC title game — ample rest. For West Chester, the bats have come alive. Caleb Strawhecker (.360, 1.119 OPS, eight home runs, 43 RBIs) had eight RBIs in the regionals. Carter Rust went 8-for-14 with two home runs and six RBIs. There are plenty of pieces for this PSAC game of chess, and it could very well go all three.

Central Region

Here they come. The May Mules are engaged, and pretty much coasted through the regionals. They blanked Minnesota State with a nicely-pitched effort and then swept nationally ranked and No. 2-seed Rogers State by a score of 17-5 in two games. Not many faces remained from last year’s national runners-up team, but top hitter Chase Wilcox (.363, .968 OPS, 40 RBIs) was and is itching for another chance at Cary. This time of year, stats don’t particularly matter; head coach Kyle Crookes pushes the right buttons and seems to find a way to win.

The Mules will be hosting Augustana (SD), making its fourth super regional appearance in program history. The Vikings, the 2018 national champs, were on a mission from opening day after they were somewhat surprisingly left out of the 2025 bracket despite piling up 39 wins. They caught fire in the NSIC tournament, sweeping nationally ranked Minnesota State for the autobid and then taking two of three from the top five Gorillas. The Augustana style of play has rarely changed over the years; the Vikings have a blend of players that get the barrel on the ball consistently (eight everyday players are hitting above .315), they are aggressive on the basepaths (six everyday players have double-digit steals), and they pile up a ton of runs (the 22nd most in DII) without having an elite home run hitter. Per usual, this is one of the most dangerous teams still standing in the bracket. 

East Region

It is a battle of newcomers vs. East Region staples. Molloy has now made five of the last six tournaments, with three trips to the super regionals sprinkled in the mix while Bentley is making its super regional debut.

The Falcons have one of the better offenses in DII, currently 13th in scoring, top 15 in batting average, and seventh in home runs. They have four sluggers — Stan DeMartinis III, Jared Bernardino, Brendan Sencaj and Nick Pappas — all hitting above .350 with at least 12 home runs. The question will be whether the Falcons’ starting rotation can silence the Molloy bats.

The Lions were hardly tested in the ECC this season, winning their third-straight title and fifth in the last six years. They put together a 23-game winning streak and enter the supers as winners of nine of their last 12. Sean Welsh (.413, 1.241 OPS, 63 runs scored, 13 home runs, 59 RBIs and 16 stolen bases) has been one of the best hitters in the East all season, but it will be ace James Sill who will set the tone. Sill has long been one of DII’s best pitchers, but has been a mixed bag down the stretch. He has two dandies, going seven shutout innings, and two starts that he didn’t make it out of the fifth. If he comes out like the former and gets the Lions that first win, it will be interesting to see how an inexperienced Bentley responds facing elimination. 

Midwest Region

On paper, the Lakers don’t have a weakness. We have talked at length about the depth of this pitching staff, one that is statistically top five in all DII. Collin Bradley opened with eight shutout innings and 14 strikeouts, while Jackson Kees held court in the decisive regional game. When Owen Avery struggled, this offense backed him up by scoring 23 runs, with likely consensus All-American Evan Morrison leading the charge with four hits, two doubles, six runs scored and five RBIs. There was a reason this team was picked to win the Midwest way back in the preseason, and it is the depth in all facets of the game that has the Lakers on the precipice of Cary.

And then there are the Greyhounds. 

There are no certainties in life… well, minus @UIndyAthletics finding their way to the #d2baseball Midwest super regionals.

— Wayne Cavadi (@WayneCavadi_D2) May 17, 2026

UIndy has been far from the best team in the tournament the last four years, and several times, the Greyhounds were one of the lower seeds in their own region. However, like setting a watch, May brings out their best, and here they are for the fourth year in a row in the super regionals. They made back-to-back trips to Cary in 2023 and 2024 and will be looking to get back to DII’s holy land in 2026. Austin Bode leads the offense, hitting .401 with a 1.351 OPS, 78 runs scored, 19 home runs and 73 RBIs, while Aiden Pearson (8-3, 3.95 ERA, 1.52 WHIP) heads the pitching. Nothing was easy for UIndy in the regionals; the Greyhounds played come-from-behind ball several times, and their five games were decided by a total score of 60-44. They can’t afford to do that against GVSU’s elite pitching. 

South Region

Since 2019, the Spartans had missed Cary just twice. Both of those times were when Rollins took best-of-three series against the mighty Spartans to advance to Cary in back-to-back seasons. You’d think there would be some PTSD for head coach Joe Urso and associate head coach Sam Militello, who have won more than 1,100 games together, but that was not the case. Tampa downed Rollins twice by a combined score of 18-5 and stands two wins shy of its third-straight trip to the finals. This pitching staff remains elite with three aces in B.J. Bailey, Robert Satin, and John Luke Glanton leading DII baseball’s best staff.

The Argos will host the Spartans in their last super regional as a DII program. This is a rematch of last year’s South supers, which Tampa swept easily 8-1 and 9-4 in two-straight games. West Florida held court as the No. 1 seed in the South for essentially the entire season. The Argos won in a variety of ways in the regionals, sometimes piling up double-digit runs while advancing to the supers behind a 2-0 pitcher’s duel. Colton Dorsey (8-3, 3.36 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 82 strikeouts in 75 innings) and Braden Rapp (9-0, 3.71 ERA, 1.21 WHIP) will have to be at their absolute best, because coming from behind on Tampa is no easy task. Keep an eye on Zack Stokes (.449, 1.326, 73 runs scored, 14 home runs, 44 RBIs, 10 stolen bases), as he will need to be the fire starter against Tampa’s elite arms. 

South Central Region

Colorado Mesa has been utterly dominant against DII competition, going 51-2 against DII teams since opening weekend. Those two losses were by one run each. The Mavericks scored 15 runs in each of their three regional wins, and there simply is no end in sight to this runaway train. Kolby Felix (.427, 1.383, 87 runs scored, 17 home runs, 64 RBIs and 26 stolen bases) is the latest DII hitting superstar to come out of Grand Junction, but this offense, like the pitching staff, is deep. If healthy, this is coach Chris Hanks’ best pitching staff since 2019. 

Standing in the Mavericks’ way are the Patriots, a team looking to start its DII dynasty. Not long ago this was a DIII baseball powerhouse, and now, they are the defending South Central Region champs after earning their first-ever LSC conference tournament title this year. The Patriots have not lost a weekend series all season and had to beat Angelo State, the former kings of the South Central, four times in the past two weeks to be here. That is tough, and shows how tough this experience-laden team truly is. 

Southeast Region

Francis Marion is in uncharted territory, breaking through to its first-ever super regionals. A simple look at the stats tells the story here: The Patriots have statistically speaking the weakest pitching remaining in the tournament; however, the pitchers come up big in big moments, allowing this offense to come alive. Charlie Bussey III is a player-of-the-year finalist, either leading or amongst DII leaders in hitting (.484, 1.464 OPS), runs scored (112), home runs (20), and stolen bases (39) while driving in 75 runs…which is 15th-most in DII, but the third-most on his own team, which tells you how stacked this lineup is. 

Catawba is the polar opposite. This is a team with plenty of postseason experience, having reached the last two Southeast super regionals and advancing to Cary in 2024. Casey Gouge (9-1, 3.25 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, .244 batting average against) and Colt Wilkins (10-2, 3.62 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, .259 BAA) may be the duo to squelch these big Francis Marion bats. Both went deep into the ball game and were strong in quieting those potent Belmont Abbey and Young Harris bats. 

West Region

These are two West Region heavyweights. Northwest Nazarene is the defending West champs, attempting to get to Cary for the third time since 2021. Point Loma has made the tournament four years in a row, reaching Cary twice in 2022 and 2024. So, to reiterate, in the post-COVID era, these two teams have represented the West in Cary four out of five times and are about to make it five out of six. 

If you look at the stats, there isn’t much that separates these two. Point Loma has been a nationally ranked, top 10 team since opening day. The Sea Lions have two very strong starting pitchers in Devin Norton (9-2, 2.20 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, .202 BAA) and Derek Silva (10-1, 3.53 ERA, 1.42 WHIP, .251 BAA, more than a strikeout per inning) and plenty of big bats, highlighted by Josiah Rodriguez’s .423 batting average and Tristan Moore’s 17 home runs. The Nighthawks’ No.1 Corbin Talley has not been himself down the stretch, but the bats have come through, averaging 13 runs per game, including a 17-0 drubbing of No.1-seeded Cal State Monterey Bay to advance to the supers. This one should go the distance and have entertaining battles to the final pitch.