McMINNVILLE, Ore. – The UW-Stevens Point baseball team received an at-large bid to the field of 56 for the 2014 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship and will travel west for the McMinnville Regional, hosted by Linfield College. Action gets underway Wednesday, May 14.

Regional Website

The Pointers, seeded fourth in the regional, will open the double elimination regional Wednesday evening against Trinity University (Texas). First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. Pacific Time.

Joining the Pointers at the regional will be No.1-seed and defending national champion Linfiend, No.2-seed Cal Lutheran, No.3-seed Trinity (TX), No.5-seed Illinois Wesleyan and No.6-seed LeTourneau (TX). There will be three games each on Wednesday and Thursday and the regional champion will be crowned on Saturday, May 17. The winner of the regional advances to the Division III World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin from May 23-27.

UW-Stevens Point earned one of 14 "Pool C" bids to the regionals on the strength of a 29-11 record thus far against one of the toughest schedules in the country. Three Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) teams were selected in the national tournament for the first time since 2008, as UW-Whitewater will host a regional that also includes UW-La Crosse.

Offensively, the Pointers are led by the bats of Brandon Kranz (Waukesha, WI/West) and Kyle McHugh (Polonia, WI/Rosholt), who each hit at least .380 and were the top-two run producers on the team with 39 and 57 RBI, respectively. Bobby Gregorich (Plover, WI/SPASH), Riley Spetz (Sturgeon Bay, WI/Sevastopol), Jimmy Coady (La Crosse, WI/Aquinas) and Taylor Carlson (Madison, WI/LaFollette) all have batting averages of at least .300 this season, as UW-Stevens Point is batting .314 as a team.

On the mound, Luke Watson (Appleton, WI/Xavier) has been the team's top pitcher this season and he is joined in the starting rotation by the last two winners of the WIAC Pitcher of the Year in Cam Seidl (Appleton, WI/Fox Valley Lutheran) and JP Feyereisen (River Falls, WI/River Falls). Nick Prebelski (Green Bay, WI/Notre Dame), who has the team's best ERA, and Tyler Flood (Madison, WI/La Follette) are the top two relievers on the team and Flood has also made a pair of starts.

A complete preview of the regional will be posted later.