David Jablonski: Wittenberg baseball: Tigers confident as No. 1 seed in Adrian Regional

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Now that the Wittenberg Tigers have earned their first NCAA Division III baseball tournament berth in 32 years, they have set their sights on advancing past the first weekend for the first time.

Three competitive games — two decided by one run — against a Denison team that ranks first in the nation, give coach Mitchell Griffiths’ team confidence this week.

“Those guys, they’re tough customers,” Griffiths said. “I thought our guys really went blow for blow with them. There’s a lot of respect between those two programs.”

Denison (40-1) beat Wittenberg twice in the regular season: 8-7 and 13-12 in Springfield on April 25. In the North Coast Athletic Conference tournament on Saturday, May 9, Wittenberg led Denison 8-6 through four innings but lost 14-8. Those victories are part of a 39-game winning streak Denison takes into the NCAA tournament.

Wittenberg and Denison are on opposite sides of the NCAA tournament bracket, so they wouldn’t play unless they both reach the Division III World Series.

First, Wittenberg plays in the Adrian Regional at Adrian College in Michigan.

Wittenberg (31-11) will play Webster University (30-14) at 11 a.m. Friday, May 15. Adrian (31-10) plays DePauw University (28-13) at 2:30 p.m. Friday.

One team will advance from the double-elimination regional to a best-of-three Super Regional.

“There are four really good teams in that regional, and we’re familiar with DePauw,” Griffiths said. “It’s cool to see a conference opponent in the regional. It goes to show the strength of our conference this year, having three teams out of the NCAC in the national tournament.”

Wittenberg beat DePauw 19-3 and 15-5 in the regular season in Springfield. DePauw beat Wittenberg 7-6 in the first round of the NCAC tournament, but Wittenberg beat DePauw 9-8 the next day to stay alive in the tournament.

Wittenberg is the No. 1 seed in the regional. It did not bid to host NCAA tournament games at Carleton Davidson Stadium. That’s why it’s going on the road.

“They’re actually redoing our infield right now,” Griffiths said. “We are super excited about that. This is the first time in over 30 years we’re going to a regional, so we didn’t want to have to worry about tarping the field and weather and stuff like that. We want to enjoy this experience and go try to win the thing.”

No. 2 seed Adrian, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament champion, will make its 17th regional appearance. Griffiths spent one season as an assistant coach on Adrian head coach Craig Rainey’s staff. Rainey has led the program for 33 seasons and has guided it to two World Series appearances.

No. 4 seed Webster, the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament champion, has made 14 NCAA tournament appearances in coach Bill Kurlich’s 19 seasons.

No. 3 seed DePauw will make its 10th NCAA tournament appearance and first since 2017.

Wittenberg earned one of 23 at-large berths in the 64-team bracket. The team watched the selection show together on Monday, May 11.

“Even though you anticipate that you’re going to be in,” Griffiths said, “I think just seeing your name go up there and being a No. 1 seed just goes to show the success we’ve had this season. It was a really special moment for the players and the coaches.”

Wittenberg will make its second NCAA tournament appearance and first since 1994.

“That’s one thing we really focused on this year,” Griffiths said. “It was always: Get to the conference tournament, and let’s try to win the conference tournament. I think last year, being so close to making the regional, we kind of figured out like, hey, there are different avenues to get into the regional. Let’s play a tough schedule early and put ourselves in the best position to make a regional and compete for a national championship. That was our biggest goal. We wanted to get away from the mindset that the conference tournament was the World Series. The national tournament is the actual World Series. That came to fruition for us this year.”

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