WAVERLY, Iowa-- The No. 27 ranked Wartburg baseball team (31-12 overall) will face host-Webster University (29-13) Thursday, May 18 at 7 p.m. in the NCAA Tournament. All games in this regional will be played at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Ill.

The Knights will make their third-straight appearance and 14^th overall in the NCAA Tournament. The Orange and Black received the Iowa Conference's automatic bid as they won the IIAC tournament championship Saturday.
 
Wartburg joins four other teams at this site: Birmingham Southern College, Washington University in St. Louis, North Central (Illinois) and Greenville.

The Knights hold the all-time series lead at 6-2 over the Gorloks, and won the meeting earlier this season, 6-2, back in March.

Wartburg is 20-26 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and finished as best as fourth in 2005.
 
Winners of the eight regional tournaments will qualify for the double-elimination NCAA Championship at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wis., Friday-Tuesday/Wednesday, May 26- 30/31, 2017.

Waterloo Courier preview

d3baseball.com preview

Follow the Knights
Click here for the live video.
Click here for the live stats.

Webster
The Gorloks received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

Matt Wollnik leads the team with a .349 batting average. Three players join him above .300: Conner Wardlaw at .329, Ben Dinter at .319 and Nate Tholl at .305. Wollnik also has a team-best 32 RBIs.

Josh Fleming leads the starting pitching staff with a 0.53 ERA and is 8-0 in 84.2 innings pitched with 108 strikeouts.

Wartburg
Junior Eric Willis (Waverly) has a team-best .398 batting average. Five teammates join him above .300: junior Cody Hyler (Des Moines) at .380, junior Blake Mahoney (Des Moines) at .375, senior Jacob Thumann (DeWitt) at .340, junior David Fitzgerald (Dubuque) at .315, and senior Austin Lechtenberg (DeWitt) at .312.

Thumann leads the team with 44 RBIs, and Mahoney follows with 40.

Senior Max Langheinrich (Minnetonka, Minn.) leads the starting pitchers with a 2.76 ERA and is 6-1 in 78.1 innings pitched with 68 strikeouts.

National Stat Rankings
Wartburg ranks in the top 100 of 13 categories. The Knights are: eighth in strikeout to walk ratio (3.23) and WHIP (1.20), 11th in walks allowed/nine innings (2.44), 12th in ERA (3.18) and fielding percentage (.972), 21st in hits allowed/nine innings (8.38), 28th in hits (461), 33rd in strikeouts per nine innings (7.9), 35th in WL percentage (.721), 54th in batting average (.316), 71st in on base percentage (.396), 74th in runs (281), and 98th in stolen bases (65).

Individually, four player are ranked in eight categories.

Senior Taylor Gilson (Oelwein) is 10th in victories (9), 12th in games started (13), 45th in strikeouts (75)

Willis is 10th in hits (72) and junior Tanner Eckhart (Monticello, Minn.) is 32nd in strikeout to walk ratio (6.56).

Thumann is sixth in home runs (12), 21st in home runs/game (0.28), 34th in total bases (104).

Schedule

Thursday May 18
Game 1 — #5 Birmingham Southern 14, Greenville 6
Game 2 — North Central 3, WashU 1
Game 3 — #27 Wartburg 3, Webster 0

Friday May 19
Game 4 — Greenville vs. WashU Noon
Game 5 — Birmingham Southern vs. Webster 3:30 p.m.
Game 6 — North Central vs. Wartburg 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 20
Game	Schedule	Time/Result
#7	Winner of Game 5 vs. Winner of Game 6	12:00 p.m.
#8	Winner of Game 4 vs. Loser of Game 6	3:30 p.m.
#9	Winner of Game 8 vs. Loser of Game 7	7:00 p.m.

     

Sunday, May 21
Game	Schedule	Time/Result
#10	Winner of Game 7 vs. Winner of Game 9	TBA
#11	Winner of Game 10 vs. Loser of Game 10 (if necessary)	TBA