DANVILLE, Ky. - The 2026 Southern Athletic Association Champion Centre Baseball team has been selected to host an opening regional pod in the 2026 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament. The Colonels will face Piedmont in the opening round, with WashU and Aurora making up the rest of the field.

The Colonels ended the regular season with a 31-13 overall record and are entering the big dance on a roll, having won ten of their last 11 contests. Centre entered the SAA Tournament as the no. 4 seed in the conference tournament and won all four games in Rome, Ga., capping off an impressive postseason stretch with an 11-3 victory over Rhodes in the title game.

Washington University in St. Louis enters the regional pod with a 28-11 overall record and a 12-8 mark in the always challenging University Athletic Association, where six of their players earned All-Conference honors.

The Aurora Spartans posted a 31-12 overall record and won the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference with a 20-4 mark before sweeping three games in the conference tournament.

The Piedmont Lions went 30-13 in 2026 and 12-6 in the Collegiate Conference of the South, a league that sent three teams to the NCAA Tournament. Piedmont scored 35 runs across four wins in their conference tournament.

The double elimination bracket will begin at 11 AM on Friday with WashU vs. Aurora, followed by Centre vs. Piedmont at 2:30 PM. Three games will follow on Saturday, with up to two on Sunday to wrap things up.

Tickets, streaming and other information will be updated in the coming days.