The University of Rochester baseball team will be headed to Marietta, Ohio for the upcoming NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament Regionals this coming week, with games set for May 27-30.
 
The Yellowjackets (24-8), champions of the Liberty League, are seeded fifth in the six team regional and will play host and 4th-ranked Marietta College (35-4) in its opening game of the regional on Thursday at 2:30 pm.
 
Making up the rest of the regional is top-seed and 8th-ranked Rowan University (25-4), third-seeded and #18 ranked North Carolina Wesleyan College (32-8), number four seed and #23 ranked St. John Fisher College and six seed Penn State Behrend.
 
The opening day pairings in the double-elimination bracket are as follows:
#1 Rowan vs #6 Penn State Behrend – 11 am
#2 Marietta vs #5 Rochester – 2:30 pm
#3 NC Wesleyan vs. #4 St. John Fisher – 6 pm
 
Rochester's NCAA Tournament appearance is the fifth in school history for the Yellowjackets and second straight, dating back to 2019, as there was no tournament in the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
 
This is the first time in school history the team will be making back-to-back NCAA appearances, with the other three postseason tournament qualifications being in 1980, 1989 and 1999.
 
UR earned its berth into the NCAA's after sweeping two games in the single-elimination Liberty League Tournament two weeks ago, with both wins coming at Towers Field. The Yellowjacket defeated Clarkson 13-8 on May 12 and then followed it up with a 19-4 win in the title game over Union on May 15.
 
Rochester's opponent in the opening round, Marietta, earned the automatic berth into the tournament by virtue of claiming the Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament title last weekend, going 3-0 in games against John Carroll University and the University of Mount Union.
 
Marietta is a six-time Division III National Champion in baseball, with the most recent triumph coming in 2012, the second of back-to-back titles for the Pioneers.
 
The Yellowjackets and Pioneers have met twice before in baseball, with each team winning once. Back in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, Marietta edged Rochester 3-2 in a regional played in Canton, Ohio. Rochester returned the favor in the 2005 season, winning 14-13 during the teams spring break trip to Cocoa Beach, Florida.
 
Among the other regional participants, Rochester's local rival St. John Fisher is the most familiar opponent, with those teams splitting the 60 all-time games even, 30-30. Rochester has never played the other three teams, Rowan, NC Wesleyan or Penn State Behrend in baseball before.
 
The survivor of this regional, along with seven other regional sites across Division III will move on to the Division III Finals to be played from June 4-9 at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.