So here we are. On Friday, eight teams will take the field in Appleton, Wis., in the likes of Mass-Boston, Cortland, Johns Hopkins, Shenandoah, Heidelberg, Illinois Wesleyan, UW-Stevens Point and Linfield. And whoever wins will be taking the trophy back home for the first time.

Two teams, Heidelberg and Mass-Boston, are making their first trip. Heidelberg's arrival has been expected for some time but the team photo for Mass-Boston is seen next to the dictionary entry of "Cinderella."

Shenandoah, Linfield and Illinois Wesleyan are now two-time participants. Shenandoah is making their second straight visit and Linfield their second in three years but it has been a long nine years for the Titans. Johns Hopkins is making its third trip, UW-Stevens Point is making its fourth and Cortland State will be making its 10th trip in the past 15 years.

• Highlights and interviews from regional finals
• Friday's schedule
• Discuss the Championship round on D3boards.com
• Follow @d3baseball on Twitter for frequent updates
• Day 5: IWU, JHU claim final spots
• Day 4: Six tickets punched for Appleton

Two teams are the top of the polls and we will see them play on the first day. It is no surprise to see Johns Hopkins, with its No. 1 ranking, in Appleton. The Blue Jays have the pitching to get deep into the winners bracket and the second-best offense in D-III that can bail out any pitcher. They will see No. 2 Heidelberg on the first day. The 'Berg has stayed at the top of the rankings all year and have finally emerged from the shadow of Wooster and Marietta. The winner of the two best programs will emerge as a favorite to make the championship game.

No. 11 Cortland State has brought a solid team to Appleton and with just one goal in mind, bringing back Walnut and Bronze. The Red Dragons cruised through the New York Regional and will face a UW-Stevens Point team that has started fast in its two previous double-elimination tournaments. The Pointers, with the backing of the local crowd and a large contingent of hometown fans, are our Cinderella. Their first round match-up will feature the only two at-large (Pool C) teams that captured their regional championships.

First-round matchups for the championship round (all times Central):
Game 1, 10:00 a.m.: Cortland State vs. UW-Stevens Point
Game 2, 1:15 p.m.: Mass-Boston vs. Linfield
Game 3, 4:30 p.m.: Heidelberg vs. Johns Hopkins
Game 4, 7:45 p.m.: Shenandoah vs. Illinois Wesleyan

Mass-Boston has won a school-record nine straight games coming into the final round and starts with No. 16 Linfield. The Wildcats boast the best defense and the sixth-best pitching staff in D-III and will provide a challenge for the Beacons from the start.

No. 9 Shenandoah was a favorite to make the Championship back in January and has cruised through both its conference and regional tournaments. Solid coaching along with a top ranked offense will provide problem for Illinois Wesleyan. The Titans are unheralded coming in but after a difficult season has put it all together and could surprise any team that looks past them.

Players to Watch:
3B Willie Brecchun, Heidelberg (.442, 59R, 26 2B, 65 RBI)
SS Kelson Brown, Linfield (.446, 57 R, 24 2B, 60 RBI, 24 SB)
OF Dave Kahn, Johns Hopkins (.473, 72R, 16 HR, 70 RBI, 18 SB)
P Jason Pankau, Illinois Wesleyan (2.67 ERA, 9-2, 5 CG, 80 SO)
1B Jeremy Richter, UW-Stevens Point (.356, 53 R, 11 HR, 53 RBI)
OF Jason Simone, Cortland State (.464, 38 R, 50 RBI, 4 SO in 168 AB, 22 SB)
UTL Greg Van Sickler, Shenandoah (.411, 27 2B, 51 RBI, 3.09 ERA 8-2, 58 SO)
2B Ryan Walsh, Mass-Boston (.406, 71R, 20 2B, 59 RBI, 31 SB)

Illinois Wesleyan and Johns Hopkins took the final two spots in Appleton, as the Titans defeated Buena Vista to win the Central Regional and Johns Hopkins beat Kean 8-3 to win the Mid-Atlantic.

The Blue Jays return to Appleton for the second time in three seasons, thanks in large part to eight innings pitched and 12 strikeouts from Alex Eliopoulos in the win. James Teta and Chris Huisman had three hits apiece.

• Sunday's schedule
• Discuss regionals day 5 on D3boards.com
• Follow @d3baseball on Twitter for frequent updates
• Day 4: Six tickets punched for Appleton

Paul Kabbes allowed six hits in seven innings and Brett Moore was 3-for-5 with two RBIs to lead Illinois Wesleyan Titans in its 10-3 win over IIAC champion Buena Vista. The Titans now advance to the NCAA Championships for the first time since 2001.

Illinois Wesleyan will play in the final game on Friday night against Shenandoah. The Titans jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings, then, after the Beavers scratched out a run in the fourth, IWU answered with one in the bottom of the fourth and four more in the fifth to put the game away.

On Saturday, Cortland State, Heidelberg, Linfield, Mass-Boston, Shenandoah and UW-Stevens Point clinched their respective regionals. Looking ahead, here's Friday's schedule.

There's always a newcomer in Appleton, right? But it's not always a playoff rookie. That's what we have, however, in Mass-Boston. The Beacons, who were making their first appearance in the postseason, have taken their newcomer status to the next level, beating Tufts 12-6 to advance to the championships round.

Mass-Boston, which was 24-15 when the Little East tournament began, was the No. 7 seed in the New England Regional.

• Sunday's schedule• Saturday's scores
• Discuss regionals day 4 on D3boards.com
• Follow @d3baseball on Twitter for frequent updates
• Day 3: Defending champs ousted

Last year, Shenandoah was a championships newcomer. This year, they're the repeat South Regional champions as the Hornets held off a late rally to defeat Salisbury 6-4. Cory Nelson hit his eighth home run of the season and drove in three as the Hornets scored the first six and survived a top of the ninth in which the Sea Gulls had the winning run at first base.

The other newcomer to the championships is Heidelberg, which needed just three wins to take the seven-team Mideast Regional, beating Marietta on Saturday afternoon 6-2 in a repeat of the OAC tournament championship.

UW-Stevens Point avoided the WIAC deja vu and won the second game against UW-Whitewater. The Warhawks had forced a second game with a 9-3 win, but gave up a ninth-inning run to UW-Stevens Point, which won the Midwest Regional 4-3 to give Appleton a near-home team.

Linfield will be returning to Fox Cities Stadium after an absence last year. Linfield defeated Mississippi College 12-3 in front of its hometown fans. Linfield is the only team hosting a regional on its own campus to advance (Cortland hosted at an area minor league stadium). Mississippi had College used an unearned run in the bottom of the ninth to defeat Pomona-Pitzer to advance to the finale with Linfield.

Cortland State closed out the deal while Johns Hopkins is looking at one more game. Cortland gave up four runs to St. John Fisher in the ninth to tie the game and then came up with one of its own to claim the regional crown with a 7-6 win. Johns Hopkins will have to wait until Sunday to see if it or Kean will represent the Mid-Atlantic. Kean defeated the Blue Jays 9-6 to force a final game.

The Central Regional will also have to wait until Sunday to find a winner. Illinois Wesleyan defeated Webster 8-3 on Saturday afternoon to improve to 3-0 in the regional and will meet the Buena Vista Beavers who eliminated Rose-Hulman and Webster on Saturday.

The defending national champion is out of the bracket, as UW-Whitewater edged St. Thomas 5-4 on Friday afternoon to eliminate them from the NCAA Tournament.

That means that Division III baseball's streak without a successful title defense continues, the longest current streak in any NCAA sport. The last national champion to repeat was Glassboro State (now Rowan) in 1978 and 1979.

• Friday's scoreboard
• Discuss regionals day 3 on D3boards.com
• Follow @d3baseball on Twitter for frequent updates
• Day 2: West Regional closely contested
• Day 2: Elimination day coverage

Chapman will not be returning to Appleton either, ending a streak of five consecutive regional championships. Linfield made sure of that this afternoon by defeating the Panthers 6-0 and keeping Chapman out of the championship round for the first time since 2004. Kean has its own streak going (2007-09) and kept their hopes alive with a 8-2 win over Widener.

Wooster has also been eliminated, and last night four teams that made it to Appleton in 2009 picked up their first losses of their respective regionals. But on the flip side, UW-Stevens Point and Shenandoah have won already on Friday and secured themselves game times for Saturday. Heidelberg joined them as well, defeating Penn State-Behrend 9-2.

Mass-Boston extended its unbeaten run through the postseason. After sweeping the LEC tournament, the Beacons have remained unbeaten in the New England Regional, including scoring twice in the bottom of the ninth to walk away with a 3-2 win against top-seeded Tufts. Mass-Boston pushed the final run across after an error by third baseman Sam Sager allowed Mark McCormack to score the game-winner. Six players drove in runs to keep Wheaton (Mass.) alive in the New England Regional. The Lyons eliminated Eastern Connecticut with a 9-4 win.

Top seeds Cortland State, Johns Hopkins, Shenandoah and Heidelberg are still unbeaten. Penn State-Behrend's loss to Heidelberg was its first loss of the regional.

UW-Stevens Point reached Stagg Bowl-winning quarterback Jeff Donovan for six runs, four earned in the first three innings and went on to beat UW-Whitewater 12-4. The Pointers advanced to Saturday while waiting for St. Thomas to beat Carthage and UW-Whitewater to eliminate the Tommies.

Widener knocked Keystone out of the Mid-Atlantic regional with a 7-3 win, while Johns Hopkins gave Rowan its first loss, 9-4, behind a five-hitter by Greg Harbeck.

Thomas More eliminated Adrian this morning with an 8-5 victory before getting knocked out by Marietta in the afternoon. Salisbury wrapped it up with five in the ninth to eliminate LaGrange 12-1 and finished off Mary Washington 11-6. Saturday's South championship game time has been moved up to 11 a.m. to avoid incoming weather.

Keene State was eliminated in the New York Regional, as Oneonta State defeated the Owls 5-2. Oneonta will play again tonight. Castleton State sent 2009 World Series participant Farmingdale State packing with a 10-9 win, its second win in a row after losing to host Cortland on Wednesday.

The opening game went 11 innings and as the dust settled late Thursday night, it was Pomona-Pitzer standing atop the winner's bracket, unbeaten in the West Regional.

• Friday's schedule
• Thursday's scores
• Discuss regionals day 2 on D3boards.com

Mississippi College led 4-3 when Trinity (Texas) got three consecutive singles to push across a run and tie the game 4-4 in the top of the sixth. But the Tigers got no more baserunners off reliever Daniel Cowart the rest of the afternoon, as he turned in six innings of three-hit ball.

That enabled the Choctaws to survive until the 11th inning, where Andy Smith drew a lead-off walk, moved to second on a ground single to left by Chase Herrin, and scored the game-ending run on Stuart Magee's single to right despite a strong throw to the plate. Smith's slide gave Mississippi College the 5-4 win.

The bullpen came up big in the second game as well, as Matt Schimpf allowed four hits and one unearned run in 5-1/3 innings of relief to improve his record to 5-0 and lead Texas-Tyler to a 5-4 win against Chapman.

The Panthers had a scoring chance in the eighth, but the Patriots made a big defensive play to end the threat. Pinch-runner Eric Robbins attempted to score from first on double to left-center by Charlie Piro, but the relay from center fielder Clakley to shortstop Aaron McCain to Nathan Skeen at the plate nailed the runner on a bang-bang play.

In the nightcap, Pomona-Pitzer broke open a 2-2 game with four runs in the top of the fifth on a three-run homer by Jeff Kang and a solo shot by Erik Munzer to take a 6-2 lead. Linfield answered with two in the bottom half, but the Sagehens added three more in the top of the seventh and went on to win 10-4.

The final game of the day was in New York as second-seeded St. John Fisher overcame a 6-0 deficit and rallied to score six runs in the final three innings to beat No. 6 Farmingdale 8-7 early Friday morning in NCAA Division III Regional action in Auburn. The Cardinals chipped away at the lead, scoring two runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, three in the eighth and two in the ninth with the final run comin on a bad-hop single over first baseman's glove. Mass-Boston also scored some late runs to advance in the winners bracket and will face Tufts, a 3-0 winner earlier over Eastern Connecticut St.

Scroll down for coverage from the other Division III regionals on Thursday.

2010 regional previews and links: Central | Mid-Atlantic | Mideast | Midwest | New England | New York | South | West

Carthage, which played in Appleton last year, eliminated Aurora this afternoon while a 2009 championship round participant went two-and-out on Thursday afternooon.

• Thursday's schedule, with stats, audio, video links
• Wednesday's scores
• Day 1: Mideast goes overtime
• Day 1: Regionals off and running
• Discuss regionals day 2 on D3boards.com

Marietta survived elimination twice, knocking last year's national runner-up onto the barbecue list by defeating Wooster 6-0, then ending Washington and Jefferson's run with an 11-1 win in the final game of the night. Heidelberg finished the carryover game from last night, rallying from an 8-5 eighth-inning deficit to beat Adrian 9-8, giving Adrian its first loss of the tournament in the Mideast Regional.

Mike Petti went 2-for-4 with four RBI for Carthage in its 10-5 win against Aurora (photo gallery). St. Joseph's (Maine) got a walkoff single from Travis Adams in the bottom of the 12th inning to lift the Monks past Worcester State 5-4, eliminating the MASCAC champs. Skidmore went two-and-out, as Castleton State survived in the New York Regional, 7-6.

Widener and Alvernia survived in the Mid-Atlantic Regional, eliminating Manhattanville and Moravian, while Johns Hopkins handed Keystone its first loss behind Sam Eagleson's 11th win of the season. Rowan beat Kean 8-3, as the Cougars left the bases full in the bottom of the ninth inning.

UW-Whitewater finished off St. Scholastica 6-2 to eliminate the Saints in the Midwest (photo gallery). UW-Stevens Point beat St. Thomas 2-1 in the battle of the Midwest's unbeatens (photo gallery).

At the Central Regional, No. 1 seed Buena Vista eliminated No. 2 seed North Central 8-5, but that's the only game they'll get in today, as rain has pushed everything back until noon tomorrow.

Check the links above for ways to follow today's games or scroll down for last night's coverage, including the crazy first day at the Mideast Regional.

2010 regional previews and links: Central | Mid-Atlantic | Mideast | Midwest | New England | New York | South | West

How best to cap a day in which the first three games went 10 innings? Let's try fog rolling in at Marietta, forcing the Adrian-Heidelberg game to get carried over into Thursday morning. Heidelberg finished the carryover game by rallying from an 8-5 eighth-inning deficit to beat Adrian 9-8, giving Adrian its first loss of the tournament in the Mideast Regional.

Adrian had scored the first four runs after the game resumed Thursday morning to turn a 4-1 deficit into a 5-4 lead, but Alex Monroe hit a bases-clearing double in the eighth to tie the game 8-8 and Steve Decker fought off several full-count pitches in the ninth before lining a single to right for the walkoff.

• Wednesday's scores
• Discuss regionals day 1 on D3boards.com

Fifth-seeded Adrian got the super-sized day started with a 10-inning, 9-7 win against fourth-seeded Washington and Jefferson, keyed by an RBI single by senior Andrew Anderson that brought in the game-winning run.

"At that point I was just trying to clear my head and find a pitch I could drive," Anderson said. "I found a pitch inside and I drove it into the outfield, which is what I was looking to do."

Thomas More kept the extra-inning upsets going with a 4-3 win, also in 10 innings, against third seed and host Marietta. The win was keyed by three innings of relief from senior Kyle Wewe, who allowed just two hits to pick up his second win after starting with an injured shoulder.

"Being able to throw without it hurting feels great. I couldn't be more excited, especially with this team. We are like a big family," said Wewe, who had three strikeouts. "Marietta's 1-9 hitters are draining because they can all hit. So I was just focused on hitting spots and trying to get them to hit the ball on the ground. That was just a great ball game."

But even that paled in comparison to the third 10-inning game, in which Penn State-Behrend got the first NCAA playoff win in the program's history, and knocked off a 2009 World Series team in the process. The Lions defeated Wooster 10-8, putting two runs across in the 10th even after the Scots rallied to tie the game after a potential game-ending double-play ball was thrown away.

"The past two years we came in as the 4 and 5 seeds and felt uptight," said Jonathan Gray, who went 4-for-5 with five RBI. "This year coming in playing Wooster and the seven seed we just wanted to let it all hang out."

Because of the seven-team regional format, Adrian was scheduled to come back for the day's final game and play top-seeded Heidelberg. But that game only got into the top of the third before being halted because of fog with runners on first and second for Adrian and one out. Heidelberg led 4-1.

Scroll down for coverage from the other Division III regionals.

Illinois Wesleyan gave a No. 1 seed its first loss in the regionals, as the sixth-seeded Titans edged Buena Vista 2-1 in the Central opener ... and the high seeds continued to fall in the Central as Rose-Hulman took a couple extra innings to overcome North Central 5-4 in 11 innings.

• Today's scores, with stats, audio, video when available
• Discuss regionals day 1 on D3boards.com

Greg Van Sickler pitched eight innings of one-run ball and hit a pair of doubles to lead Shenandoah past Bridgewater (Va.) 11-1 in the South Regional opener, while Jordan Stine went 3-for-4 with three runs scored in UW-Whitewater's 6-1 win against Aurora in the Midwest Regional (photo gallery). Keystone had little trouble with Alvernia in a 13-3 win in the Mid-Atlantic, while Keene State shut out Skidmore 1-0 to open play in the New York Regional.

In New England, host Eastern Connecticut had little trouble with MASCAC champ Worcester State, scoring five in the third and four in the fifth en route to a 10-4 win. Top seeds Tufts and Cortland State won their early-afternoon games, while fellow No. 1 Johns Hopkins had little trouble with Moravian in a 13-4 win. Check the scoreboard for more.

Matt Schuld settled down after giving up four early runs and catcher Brady Field supported him with three hits and four RBI as St. Thomas pulled away from Carthage 14-6 in the Midwest Regional (photo gallery). In the following game, St. Scholastica ace Jeff Adams gave up nine earned runs and watched his ERA balloon to 2.44 in a 12-1 loss to UW-Stevens Point (photo gallery). Adams had allowed just five earned runs all season entering the game.

Salisbury got the winning run to the plate in the bottom of the ninth in the second game of the South Regional, but James Connell came in to get the save, his fifth of the season, in LaGrange's 3-1 win. In the regional's final game, York (Pa.) rallied from a 5-1 deficit with three in the eighth and one in the ninth against Mary Washington. But it was the Eagles who got the last laugh, with a walk, a hit batsman and two singles to push across a run in the bottom of the frame to walk away with a 6-5 win.

Scroll down for more tournament coverage, including the 2010 Regional Previews, including our predictions.

Regional previews
Will Webster's recent tournament experience finally pay off? Will Mass-Boston continue its Little East tournament run into the NCAA regionals? Can a sixth seed ever be considered a disappointment?

Who will this year's surprises be? Who will be the disappointments? And in the end, which eight teams will we see in Appleton, Wis.? That's what the D3baseball.com staff aims to predict with the 2010 Regional Previews. Pick a region to read more.

2010 previews: Central | Mid-Atlantic | Mideast | Midwest | New England | New York | South | West


Early Monday morning the brackets were announced and early Wednesday morning the games begin. D3baseball.com will bring you all the coverage from here through the awarding of the Walnut and Bronze in two weeks.

Playoff toolbar: Wednesday's full schedule | Our tournament projection | Automatic bids | NCAA's final regional rankings | Strength of schedule numbers

Did you miss Monday's coverage? Scroll down for more as we get ready for the opening games of the 2010 Division III baseball championships.