For the second straight year, the University of Arkansas at Monticello baseball team is headed to the postseason.
UAM was selected to play in one of the two Central Regionals of the NCAA Division II Baseball Tournament. The NCAA announced the postseason brackets during a selection show late Sunday night.
The Boll Weevils (32-21) will be the No. 7-seed in the Central Region and will travel to Mankato, Minn., for a four-team regional hosted by No. 2-seed Minnesota State (49-6) from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference. The regional will be begin Thursday and continue through Sunday.
UAM will open against the hosts. Great American Conference rival No. 6-seed Henderson State and No. 3-seed Pittsburg State from the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association will also travel to Mankato.
The Weevils are 1-6 against Henderson State this season and lost twice to the Reddies in the GAC tournament. UAM has not faced Minnesota State or Pitt State this season.
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The other regional in the Central Region will be hosted by No. 1-seed Central Missouri. That regional will also feature two GAC teams, No. 5-seed Arkansas Tech and No. 8-seed Harding, the latter earning the GAC’s automatic bid by defeating Henderson State two games to one in the GAC tournament finals over the weekend.
No. 4-seed Central Oklahoma, the MIAA tournament champion, rounds out the Central Region bracket. The GAC regular season runner-up, Southern Arkansas, is the most notable GAC team to miss the cut.
Each regional will feature a double-elimination format. The two regional winners will face each other in a best-of-three series May 22-24 to determine which team will represent the region at the Division II Baseball Championship in Cary, N.C., to be held May 30-June 7.
This will be UAM’s second straight season making a regional and its first at-large bid since 2019. The Weevils received the GAC’s automatic bid last year after winning the GAC tournament. UAM fell to Henderson State, the eventual runner-up, in the semifinals this year.
The Weevils had success in the postseason last year, winning their regional as the No. 6 seed and advancing to the Central Super Regional before falling to top-seeded Central Missouri.