Will UW-Whitewater be part of the 2011 NCAA tournament field?

The NCAA will announce the pairings for the 2011 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship on Sunday. Will the UW-Whitewater Warhawks be included in this year’s field?

WIAC rival UW-Stevens Point did UWW a favor Saturday afternoon with its 10-0 seven-inning run rule win over UW-Oshkosh to give the Pointer’s the WIAC’s automatic bid into the Division III playoff field.

Had Oshkosh gone on to defeat UWSP twice after the Titans’ 2-1 bottom on the ninth inning win over UWW Saturday morning UWO would have earned the automatic bid and both Point and Whitewater would have needed to gain an at-large berth.

History is on UW-Whitewater’s side as far as gaining a Pool C bid is concerned. The Hawks resume in front of the NCAA Division III selection committee shows a very solid 32 & 11 to consider.

As I blogged earlier this week the Hawks have fared well when reaching the 30-plus win plateau.

If the Warhawks DO NOT earn the WIAC automatic berth what are the chances of earning an at large (Pool C) bid into this year’s NCAA tournament?

Following the Warhawks loss Saturday morning the talk around the stadium was that UWW is in good shape to earn a berth in the NCAA Division III Midwest Regional that will be played on Prucha Field at James B. Miller Stadium beginning Wednesday morning.

Jeff Potrykus of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and I interviewed Coach Vodenlich following Saturday’s game. The No. 1 question from Potrykus was if Vodenlich was still comfortable that his team will get an at-large bid into this year’s NCAA field.

“Absolutely,” Vodenlich quickly responded.

As far as possibly be moved out of the Midwest to another regional?

“I don’t remember a WIAC team that hosted a regional ever being shipped out to another region,” Vodenlich explained. “For years Oshkosh hosted and never moved. Augustana hosted when they’ve been in it and so have we (UWW).

In Vodenlich’s previous seven seasons at UW-Whitewater the Warhawks have earned NCAA bids in all but two seasons. The only time Whitewater wasn’t issued an at-large berth with 30 or more wins was in 2006. UWW was 30 and 14 that season, just one year after winning the 2005 NCAA Division III Championship.

The Midwest Regional opens play Wednesday morning. As soon as the pairings are released on Monday I’ll have them posted here on Voiceseyeonbaseball.blogspot.com.