St. Louis, Mo., June 3, 2021 – The No. 1 Washington University in St. Louis baseball team is ready to make the program's first NCAA Division III World Series appearance.
WashU (32-4) spent six weeks at No. 1 and four weeks at No. 2 in the D3baseball.com Top 25 Poll this season. The 17-0 start to the season was a program-best in at least 44 years. The Bears also went undefeated at home with 15 victories.
Senior pitchers Jared Fong and Ryan Loutos and junior infielders Caleb Durbin and Tim Van Kirk earned All-Region honors for their performances so far this season. Loutos was selected to the D3baseball.com All-America First Team, while Fong earned Third Team honors and Van Kirk collected Honorable Mention status.
Fong and Loutos also earned ABCA/Rawlings All-America honors, with Loutos named to the First Team and Fong selected as a Second Team honoree.
Fong leads Division III in saves (10) and is third in ERA (0.41). Loutos owns the second-most in victories (11) and is fourth in strikeouts (110). Durbin wraps up top-five rankings as the toughest batter to strikeout with over 52 at bats.
The team enters the World Series leading in ERA (1.94), strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.90) and WHIP (0.99). WashU is second in win-loss percentage (.912) and walks allowed per nine innings (2.18), fourth in fielding percentage (0.978) and fifth in hits allowed per nine innings (6.74).
No. 10 Adrian (36-8) won the final game of the Whitewater, Wis. Regional on Monday with a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 10th inning. This marks the program's second Championship appearance after a fourth-place finish in 2008.
Johns Hopkins (15-4), the only non-ranked team, enters the World Series after winning the St. Paul, Minn. Regional. The team opened the Regional with an 11-2 win over No. 9 Trinity (TX). This is the program's fifth trip, and they have finished third or better in three of those four previous appearances. The Bears and Blue Jays last matched up in 2001, with the Johns Hopkins winning the contest 7-5.
No. 7 Rowan (29-4) enters the Series on a 10-game winning streak, including two wins at the Marietta, Ohio Regional over the No. 4 host team. The Profs are not strangers to playing ranked teams, as they split a pair of games with No. 6 Salisbury back in March. This is Rowan's first World Series appearance since 2005, and sixth overall.
No. 6 Salisbury (29-4), the winner of the High Point, N.C. Regional, qualified for its sixth World Series and first since 2001. The team faced three programs in the Regional that were receiving votes in the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll last week. The Sea Gulls enter the Championship on a nine-game winning streak.
No. 19 St. Thomas (34-8) clinched its trip after winning the Collegeville, Minn. Regional on Monday in the school's final season at the Division III level. The Tommies are seven-time qualifiers, including two national championships (2001, 2009) and two runner-up finishes (1999, 2000).
No. 15 SUNY Cortland (31-7) dropped its first game of the Auburn, N.Y. Regional, but won four in a row, including a 3-0 victory over No. 14 Eastern Connecticut State, to earn the advance. This is the program's 15th trip to the World Series, and first since 2016. The Bears and Red Dragons' first and only game was held in 1990, with Cortland clinching a 6-3 win.
No. 12 Wheaton (Mass.) (20-5) recorded wins over No. 18 Oswego and No. 11 Southern Maine to win the Hartford, Conn. Regional. This is the program's fourth overall appearance, and earned a runner-up finish in 2006. The Bears and Lyons last played in 2018, with the Bears walking away with the 5-4 win.
WashU has never matched up with Adrian, Rowan, Salisbury or St. Thomas.
10 a.m. - WashU vs. Johns Hopkins (Game 1)
1:15 p.m. - St. Thomas (Minn.) vs. Adrian (Game 2)
4:30 p.m. - Rowan vs. Wheaton (Mass.) (Game 3)
7:45 p.m. - Salisbury vs. SUNY Cortland (Game 4)
10 a.m. - Loser Game 1 vs. Loser Game 2 (Game 5)
1:15 p.m. - Winner Game 1 vs. Winner Game 2 (Game 6)
4:30 p.m. - Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4 (Game 7)
7:45 p.m. - Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4 (Game 8)
10 a.m. - Loser Game 6 vs. Winner Game 5 (Game 9)
1:15 p.m. - Loser Game 8 vs. Winner Game 7 (Game 10)
4:30 p.m. - Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 9 (Game 11)
7:45 p.m. - Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10 (Game 12)
Winner Game 11 vs. Loser Game 11 (Game 13) - If necessary
Winner Game 12 vs. Loser Game 12 (Game 14) - If necessary
Winners of Brackets One and Two move onto the three-game Championship series. If there are no if-necessary games needed on Monday, the Championship series will begin at 12 p.m.
