Cortland Earns 32nd Straight NCAA Berth; Red Dragons Second Seed at Kean Regional May 16-18
Cortland Sports Information Department
The SUNY Cortland baseball team has received a berth into the 64-team NCAA Division III playoffs for the 32nd straight season and the 33rd time overall. The Red Dragons will be the second seed at a four-team, double-elimination regional Friday through Sunday, May 16-18, hosted by Kean University in Union, N.J.
Cortland (29-11) will face third-seeded Middlebury College (27-11) at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. The host and nationally seventh-ranked Cougars (35-8) will play fourth-seeded Husson University of Maine (24-14) in the opening game Friday at 11 a.m. The regional will continue with three games Saturday and a championship round of one or two games Sunday.
The winner of the regional will face the winner of the regional hosted by Penn State-Harrisburg in a best-of-three super regional May 23-24, with that winner advancing to the NCAA Division III World Series May 30-June 5 at Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio. The championship will be in Eastlake for the second straight year.
Cortland, led by 26th-year head coach Joe Brown, earned an NCAA automatic berth after winning the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournament at home last weekend. Cortland opened with wins over Oneonta and Oswego, followed by a decisive 16-1 victory over Oneonta in the first game of the championship round. Cortland, playing one of the nation's toughest schedules, opened the season with a 10-10 record but has since won 19 of its last 20 games.
Cortland's run of 32 straight national tournament appearances (1993-2019, 2021-25, no tourney in 2020) extends its NCAA Division III record. The Red Dragons' boast the longest active streak on any NCAA level.
Cortland has won 16 regional titles (1995, 1997-2001, 2005, 2007-08, 2010, 2012, 2014-16, 2019, 2021). Of those, 15 sent the Red Dragons to the World Series. In 2019, Cortland hosted and won a four-team regional before losing in a super regional at Babson in the first year the regional/super regional format was employed. In 2021, Cortland won a six-team regional in Auburn, N.Y. to advance to the World Series as the NCAA playoffs featured a reduced field and temporarily reverted back to a regional/World Series format due to COVID-19 concerns. Cortland hosted regionals three straight years from 2022-24, placing second in 2022 and 2023 and third last spring.
Cortland won the 2015 national title and finished second in both 2005 and 2010. The Red Dragons have also placed third nationally four times (1997, 1998, 2016, 2021) and fourth twice (2007, 2012) among their 15 World Series trips.
Cortland and Middlebury have met just once previously, with Cortland winning 2-1 in Florida in 1991. Cortland and Husson also have played just once, with Cortland earning an 8-2 win in Florida in 2012.
Cortland leads Kean 2-1 in the lifetime series, with all of the games occurring in NCAA tournament action. Two of those contests came at the World Series in Appleton, Wis., with the Cougars winning, 4-1 in 12 innings, to open the 2007 Series and the Red Dragons winning, 10-5, during the opening day of the 2012 series. Cortland also defeated Kean, 10-1, to cap off an NCAA regional title in 2014 in Newark, N.Y.
