After capturing a second West Regional title in three years, Point Loma Nazarene will be the No. 4 seed at the NCAA Division II World Series, beginning Saturday.
Point Loma (45-11-1) takes on No. 5 Indiana University of Pennsylvania (38-16) in the opening game of the double-elimination tournament in Cary, N.C.
They play at 10:30 a.m.
PLNU, the top seed in the West Region, won its regional with a pair of victories Saturday over Cal State Monterey Bay.
IUP claimed the Atlantic Region championship as the No. 5 seed, picking up its first NCAA postseason win since 1988. The Crimson Hawks – making their first-ever trip to the DII World Series, the only debut this year – set a single season program record for wins this year.
Similarly to Point Loma, IUP lost its first game of the Super Regionals before two straight victories to win its regional. They also have a championship link on their bench via manager Steve Kline. The former big leaguer was a coach in the San Francisco Giants minor-league system during the team’s three World Series runs in 2010, 2012 and 2014.
The Sea Lions are driven by their offense, yet experts have deemed their pitching staff as one of the best in the Cary field. Ray Cebulski has propelled PLNU in the postseason, allowing just two earned runs in his 14.1 innings of work.
PLNU and IUP are joined on their side of the bracket by No. 1 overall seed Central Missouri (52-8) and No. 8 seed Angelo State (41-19).
Central Missouri won the Central Regional title while Angelo State prevailed in the South Central Region.
One of those four teams will advance to the national championship to play the winner of the other side of the bracket, which features No. 2 Tampa (48-8), No. 3 Catawba (44-15), No. 6 Southern New Hampshire (36-17) and No. 7 UIndy (41-19).
The DII World Series will take place at the USA Baseball National Training Complex through June 8.
PLNU finished as national runner-up to North Greenville in 2022 in its previous trip to Cary.
