The University of Southern Maine baseball team received an at-large bid to the NCAA Division III tournament, but will be taking a long trip.

USM (30-11) is seeded second in the six-team, double-elimination New York Regional at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse.

The Huskies, the top-seeded team in the Little East Conference regular season, lost in the championship round of the LEC tournament on Saturday. USM is heading to the NCAAs for the first time since 2015 and the 23rd time overall under Coach Ed Flaherty.

The Huskies will play Castleton (Vermont) University in the first round at 2:30 p.m. Thursday. The Spartans won the North Atlantic Conference championship for the fourth consecutive year and are 34-8.

Oswego State is the top seed in the New York Regional with a 28-8 record. Other teams in the regional include No. 3 College of New Jersey (31-11), No. 4 Tufts (30-8-1) and No. 6 Ithaca College (28-11).

St. Joseph’s College, which had a 31-8 record, did not receive an NCAA at-large bid. The Monks were the top seed in the Great Northeast Atlantic Conference but lost their first two games in the conference tournament.

Advertisement

The winner of each of the NCAA’s eight regional tournaments will advance to the Division III College World Series, a double-elimination tournament held at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, Wisconsin, May 26-31.

TRACK & FIELD

AAC CHAMPIONSHIPS: Emily Durgin of Standish and the University of Connecticut set a meet record Friday while winning the 10,000 meters at the American Athletic Conference championships in Houston.

Durgin, a senior, surged ahead of Central Florida’s Anne-Marie Blaney on the final lap and won by 3 seconds with a time of 34 minutes, 28.06 seconds. She was chosen as the meet’s outstanding track performer, along with Tulane’s Jessica Duckett, the 100 hurdles champion.

Durgin helped the Huskies finish second in the overall standings, behind Cincinnati.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.