For some college baseball teams in the Midwest, the pursuit of winning a national championship will bring them to the Cedar Valley in a few weeks.

Wartburg is hosting one of eight NCAA regionals that will determine qualifiers for the Division III College World Series. The Central Regional tournament games will be played at Riverfront Stadium in Waterloo, May 13-16, 2015.

"We're excited about hosting the regional and we want to do a good job," said Wartburg Coach Joel Holst. "We feel like we've got a good venue in Riverfront Stadium to do that."

Six or eight teams will be assigned to the Central Regional in Waterloo, but the exact number won't be known until the NCAA announces post-season pairings on Sunday, May 10. Four of the regional sites will have six teams, while the other four will have eight teams.

The Central Regional has never previously been played in Iowa.

"It's about time," Holst said. "Obviously, we felt like an Iowa Conference school needed to step up. There's a lot of work that's involved with it. We'll get the work done, but it's overdue related to an Iowa Conference school doing that."

Wartburg College Logo
Wartburg College Logo
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Earlier this week, Wartburg clinched the Iowa Conference (IIAC) regular-season title and earned the top-seed in next weekend's league tournament in Cedar Rapids. The IIAC tournament champion earns an automatic bid to regional play, but the No. 11 Knights (30-9 overall, 20-8 IIAC) are ranked high enough nationally that they could receive an at-large selection without winning the tourney.

"We're hoping the work can go into the regional knowing that our team is playing in it," Holst said. "That's motivation enough to make sure that we're playing well at the end of this week and into the conference tournament."

All regionals will use a double-elimination format. Fifty-six (56) teams make the NCAA Tournament, with 40 conference champions qualifying automatically and 16 teams receiving at-large bids through pool selection.

Each of the eight regional champions will advance to the College World Series in Appleton, Wis., May 22-26.

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