HISTORY!!!-Bridgeport Baseball Receives First-Ever NCAA Division II Championship Bid

Bridgeport, Conn.-History was made on Sunday night, as the University of Bridgeport baseball team received an at-large bid to the 2016 NCAA Division II National Championship East Regional.  The bid marks the first NCAA Division II Championship appearance in the history of the baseball program at UB.

The Purple Knights will be the number-five seed in a seven-team regional that will be hosted by the number-one seed Franklin Pierce University Ravens in Rindge, N.H. The double-elimination tournament will take place from Thursday, May 19 through Monday, May 23.  A total of 56-teams will play in the 2016 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship.

Bridgeport will face the number-four seed Felician University Golden Falcons of New Jersey (33-19), who received an automatic NCAA bid as the champions of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.  Game is set for 11:00 a.m. on Thursday.

The Purple Knights, who were not ranked in any of the three NCAA East Regional Polls during the regular season, shot up to a five-seed in the tournament by reaching the championship game of the 2016 East Coast Conference Tournament and going 4-2 on the week with all four wins coming over teams that will play in the 2016 NCAA Division II East Regional (two wins over St. Thomas Aquinas and one each over Molloy and Dowling).  UB enters the NCAA Regional at 27-22-1 overall.

Top-seed Franklin Pierce (45-6) receives a bye on Thursday and will face the UB/Felician winner at 3:00 p.m. on Friday.

Following Thursday's opening game, number-two seed Southern New Hampshire, champions of the Northeast-10 Conference (45-5) will face number-seven seed Dowling College, the East Coast Conference Champions (27-23) at 3:00 p.m., followed by an all-East Coast Conference tilt at 7:00 p.m. featuring number-three seed St. Thomas Aquinas College (35-15) and number-six seed Molloy College (31-21).

The East Coast Conference is well represented in this season's NCAA Division II Baseball East Regional with four teams (St. Thomas Aquinas, Bridgeport, Dowling and Molloy.  Two teams are from the Northeast-10 Conference in Franklin Pierce and Southern New Hampshire, and Felician is lone team from the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference.

CLICK HERE FOR 2016 NCAA EAST REGION TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

2016 NCAA Baseball Championship East Regional
Hosted by Franklin Pierce University
Dr. Arthur and Martha Pappas Field (Rindge, N.H.)
Double Elimination

Thursday, May 19
Game 1: (4) Felician vs. (5) Bridgeport -- 11 a.m.
Game 2: (2) Southern New Hampshire vs. (7) Dowling -- 3 p.m.
Game 3: (3) St. Thomas Aquinas vs. (6) Molloy -- 7 p.m.

Friday, May 20
Game 4: Game 2 Loser vs. Game 3 Loser -- 11 a.m. (loser eliminated)
Game 5: Game 1 Winner at (1) Franklin Pierce -- 3 p.m.
Game 6: Game 2 Winner vs. Game 3 Winner -- 7 p.m.

Saturday, May 21
Game 7: Game 4 Winner vs. Game 5 Loser -- 11 a.m. (loser eliminated)
Game 8: Game 6 Loser vs. Game 1 Loser -- 3 p.m. (loser eliminated)
Game 9: Game 5 Winner vs. Game 6 Winner -- 7 p.m.

Sunday, May 22
Game 10: Game 8 Winner vs. Game 7 Winner -- Noon (loser eliminated)
Game 11: Game 10 Winner vs. Game 9 Loser -- 3:30 p.m. (loser eliminated)

Monday, May 23
Game 12: Game 9 Winner vs. Game 11 Winner -- Noon
Game 13: Game 12 rematch* -- 40 minutes after conclusion of Game 12
* Game 13 only necessary if Game 11 Winner wins Game 12

CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE LIST OF NCAA DIVSION II BASEBALL BRACKETS