INDIANAPOLIS (pacathletics.org)--Washington & Jefferson College will travel to the High Point, N.C. Regional to face Birmingham-Southern College in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship on Thursday, May 27.

The six-team, double-elimination tournament will be hosted by Greensboro College and High Point Downtown Stadium Foundation.

W&J (36-1) earned the No. 2 seed in the High Point Regional while Birmingham-Southern (25-14) was slotted fifth. First pitch between the Presidents and Panthers is tentatively slated for 2:30 p.m. Thursday's meeting will be the first between W&J and Birmingham-Southern on the baseball diamond.

Salisbury University (25-4) was designated as the top seed after winning the Coast to Coast Conference and will face sixth-seeded Marymount (Va.) who were winners of the Atlantic East Conference. Salisbury and Marymount will go head-to-head on Thursday at 11 a.m.

Third-seeded LaGrange University (24-8) and fourth-seeded Lynchburg University (34-13) will meet in the 6 p.m. game on Thursday. LaGrange won the USA South Athletic Conference title while Lynchburg claimed the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

W&J will be one of 48 teams competing for the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship in 2021. The field consists of 42 automatic berths, one Pool B selection and five Pool C at-large choices.

The Presidents enter the 2021 NCAA Tournament with a 36-1 overall record. W&J posted a 25-1 mark in conference play and a perfect 19-0 record in games played at Ross Memorial Park.

The Presidents secured an NCAA Pool A bid after sweeping their way through the PAC Tournament. W&J beat Saint Vincent (7-1) and Grove City (1-0) respectively to advance to the championship round. The Presidents clinched the title with a 3-0 victory over Saint Vincent on Saturday, May 15.

W&J opened the 2021 campaign with a school-record 22-game winning streak. After dropping a 4-3 decision at Chatham on Sunday, April 18, the Presidents ripped off 14 consecutive victories.

The Presidents, who are ranked No. 2 in the most recent D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll, will be making their eighth appearance in the NCAA Tournament after claiming their 13th PAC Championship. W&J captured regional championships in both 2017 and 2019 to advance to the College World Series.

Birmingham-Southern, who is receiving votes in the most recent D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll, won the Southern Athletic Association Tournament title with a win over nationally-ranked Berry College on April 24. It was the second straight SAA championship and fourth overall for Birmingham-Southern. This is Birmingham-Southern's seventh bid to the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament since 2012.

Birmingham-Southern enters the 2021 Division III Championships with a 25-14 overall record and finished SAA regular season play with a 14-10 record. The Panthers are led offensively by senior Cole Steadman, who hit .329 with team highs in hits (50) and home runs (8). Senior Will Evans reached base at a .559 clip and scored 32 runs.

Fifth-year Andy Hammond posted a 2.56 earned-run average in a team-high 70.1 innings pitched. Hammond tossed four complete games with a pair of shutouts.

Like the Presidents, the Panthers reached the 2019 Division III College World Series. Birmingham-Southern finished as the runner-ups in 2019. Both W&J and Birmingham-Southern were eliminated from the 2019 World Series by national champion Chapman University.

The 2021 tournament is 75 percent of its normal size with six teams competing at each of the eight regional sites instead of the usual regional and super regional format used in 2019.

The other regional sites are Auburn, N.Y., Marietta, Ohio, Decatur, Ill., Hartford, Conn., Collegeville, Minn., Saint Paul, Minn. and Whitewater, Wis.

The winner of the High Point, N.C. Regional and each of the seven other regionals will advance to the Division III College World Series, which will be held at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa on June 4-9, 2021.

Contributed by the Washington & Jefferson College sports information office