Norfolk State University is one of two HBCU baseball programs selected to the field of 64 teams competing in this year’s 2021 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship announced by the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee. The Spartans baseball program will make its regional appearance for the first time in program history.
The Spartans will open the tournament in a very competitive regional with three teams ranked nationally. Norfolk State is ranked No. 4 in HBCU Baseball’s “large school” Top 10 poll. East Carolina University is ranked 15th and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte is ranked 24th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers (NCBWA) Top 30 poll. The University of Maryland also received votes, but ranked outside of the top thirty, in the same poll.
Norfolk State, winners of the MEAC Conference this year, received one of the 30 automatic bids to regional play via winning conference championships. The format of the regional tournament is a round-robin, double-elimination tournament. The winners of those two games then play each other, while the losers play an elimination game.
The winner of each regional advances to the super regional. The super regional is a best-of-three series format.
The four teams that earned their way into the Greenville Regional are (seeded 1 thru 4) No. 1-East Carolina, No. 2-UNC Charlotte, No. 3-University of Maryland and No. 4-Norfolk State.
2021 NCAA GREENVILLE REGIONAL SCHEDULE
Friday, June 4 (All Games On ESPN3)
Game 1: (4) Norfolk State vs. (1) East Carolina (12 Noon)
Game 2: (3) Maryland vs. (2) Charlotte (6 p.m.)
Saturday, June 5
Game 3: Loser G1 vs. Loser G2 (1 p.m.)
Game 4: Winner G1 vs. Winner G2 (6 p.m.)
Sunday, June 6
Game 5: Winner G3 vs. Loser G4 (12 Noon)
Game 6: Winner G4 vs. Winner G5 (6 p.m.)
Monday, June 7
Game 7: Winner G6 vs. Loser G6 (1 p.m. – IF NECESSARY)
#1 East Carolina University
East Carolina is making its 31st postseason appearance, fifth in the last six years after earning the No. 1 seed in the Greenville Regional in this year’s NCAA Baseball Championships. The Pirates (41-15) will host the regional at Clark-LeClair Stadium, in Greenville, North Carolina. ECU will open play against No. 4 seed Norfolk State in the first round on Friday, May 4th. The Pirates are 5-0 against the Spartans and they last played during the 2018 season. ECU has qualified for regional competition in 17 of the last 22 seasons, but none in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
PREVIOUS REGIONALS:
1999 – Baton Rouge, La.,
2000 – Lafayette, La.,
2001 – Wilson, N.C.,
2004 – Kinston, N.C.,
2009 – Greenville, N.C.,
2018 – Greenville, N.C.,
2019 – Greenville, N.C.)
Head Coach Cliff Godwin
#2 University of North Carolina at Charlotte
For the sixth time in program history, the Charlotte baseball program is headed to the NCAA postseason, traveling to the NCAA Greenville Regional. The 49ers, are a #2 seed for the first time since 2011. Charlotte (39-19) put together an impressive 2021 season to earn just the second at-large spot in program history. The Niners, who have a .298 team average through 58 games and are ranked No. 15 in the country, won the Conference USA regular-season championship before losing in the conference tournament last week with back-to-back losses. This will be Charlotte’s sixth trip to the NCAA tournament.
PREVIOUS REGIONALS
1993 – Mideast Regional (Tennessee)
1998 – Central Regional (Texas A&M)
2007 – Columbia Regional (South Carolina)
2008 – Raleigh Regional (NC State)
2011 – Tempe Regional (Arizona State)
Head Coach Robert Woodard
#3 The University of Maryland
The Maryland Terrapins baseball team will make its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2017 after earning the No. 3 seed in the Greenville Regional. The Terps will take on No. 2 seed Charlotte on Friday, June 4. The Terrapins, who finished second in the Big Ten standings and enter the tournament with a (28-16) overall record, advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time in program history, and are receiving votes in the NCBWA Top 30 poll. Maryland has now appeared in four of the last seven NCAA DI Tournaments.
PREVIOUS REGIONALS:
1965 – District 3
1970 – District 3
1971 – District 3
2014 – Charlottesville Super Regional
2015 – Charlottesville Super Regional
2017 – Winston-Salem Regional
Head Coach Rob Vaughn
#4 Norfolk State University
The MEAC champion Norfolk State baseball team will make its first-ever NCAA Division I Baseball Championship appearance. The Spartans (25-26) are the No. 4 seed in the Greenville Regional and will face No. 1 seed ECU from the American Athletic Conference on Friday May 4th. at noon at Clark-LeClair Stadium. NSU claimed its first-ever Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) title to earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. This will be the Spartans’ first appearance in the Division I tournament.
PREVIOUS REGIONALS:
2021 First-ever Greenville Regional
Head Coach Keith Shumate