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SEMIFINALS HERE WE COME!! RAMS WIN!

— Angelo State Athletics (@angeloathletics)

No. 3 Angelo State moved to 12-1 in postseason play with a 6-2 win over No. 2 North Greenville in the 1-0 game of the 2023 ������Ƶ DII baseball tournament. With the win, the Rams advance to the national semifinal, where they will face the winner of North Greenville and Southern New Hampshire.

Kade Bragg was the primary reason for Angelo State's win on Tuesday. He pitched eight innings, allowing just five hits and two runs while striking out eight batters along the way. Scott Ellis closed out North Greenville in the bottom of the ninth, with a busy, yet effective inning of work.

Angelo State's potent offense needed just six hits in the win, but it was more than enough as Bragg and Ellis limited the Crusaders to just the two runs.

North Greenville will meet Southern New Hampshire in an elimination game at 2:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday. The winner will need to beat Angelo State twice to advance to the championship series.

Jumping for joy! remains in the Championship with its win on Tuesday in game 7️⃣.

📰:

— ������Ƶ Division II (@������ƵDII)

Nick Schwartz' three-run homerun helped keep the SNHU Penmen alive in the 2023 DII baseball tournament.

After losing to No. 3 Angelo State on Sunday, SNHU needed a win over Augustana to keep their 42-win season alive. Despite a shaky start from Josh Roberge, the Penmen's bullpen and offense picked up the slack, leading to a 10-6 win over No. 7 Augustana.

SNHU will meet the loser of Angelo State vs. North Greenville in another elimination game on Wednesday afternoon.

📲Click here to see the bracket

📊Click here to see stats from SNHU's win

And then there were eight. The 2023 DII baseball championship is heading to North Carolina for a week of baseball that will conclude with the next national champion.

Six of the super regionals were pretty easy to decide as Millersville, Southern New Hampshire, UIndy, Rollins, North Greenville, Angelo State and Cal State San Bernardino all swept their way to Cary. The field is stacked with familiar faces as four of the teams are the same as last year (North Greenville, Angelo State, Rollins and Southern New Hampshire) with a pair of former national champions still alive. 

FOLLOW LIVE: Tournament scores and updates from Cary

And yes, I got only half the field correct. Not my best season, but that means more of the unexpected and hopefully great baseball is on its way.

8 for Cary: What to know

Millersville. The Marauders are heading back to Cary for the first time since their 2016 national runner-up campaign. The super regional against Seton Hill was a matchup of two of the best pitching staffs in DII baseball, and the Marauders seemingly didn’t care, piling up 20 runs in two games. This is the fourth trip to Cary for Millersville, and the third since 2011. It is also the first time the Marauders advanced as the host seed in both the regionals and super regionals. Not to sound like a broken record, but Bren Taylor, who went 5 for 9 in the super-regional sweep, has been amazing all year and earned Atlantic Region player of the year honors.

Augustana (SD). The Vikings are no strangers to Cary, heading back to the DII baseball mecca for the first time since their national championship run in 2018. It is just the program's second trip, so they are looking for the same magic from four tourneys ago when they entered the field of eight as the No. 5 seed. The Vikings and Mavericks were one of just two super regionals that went the distance, and Augustana had to win the final two games in a row to advance. Nick Banowetz had a big series, going 6 for 16, while red-hot Jack Hines has now picked up at least one hit in each ������Ƶ tournament game thus far.

Southern New Hampshire. This is the Penmen’s third straight trip to Cary and the fourth time in the past five tournaments. They are now 41-24 all-time in the ������Ƶ tournament and certainly have made a good habit of heading to North Carolina. However, one interesting note is that the Penmen haven’t won in Cary since their semifinals run back in 2018, getting bumped in two straight games in each of the past two seasons. Jeffrey Praml (11-3, 2.41 ERA, 1.13 WHIP) and Frankie Sanchez (7-1, 2.73 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 64 strikeouts in 59.1 innings), the likely Game 1 and 2 starters, will have a large say in changing that trend.

UIndy. The Greyhounds are heading to Cary for the third time in program history, but it's the first trip in more than a decade. And what a way to do it. They had to defeat nationally ranked Illinois Springfield in the first game of the regionals and then beat top-five Quincy in the super regionals. What a series it was for UIndy's Brandon DeWitt. He picked up the complete-game victory in the first win over Quincy, striking out 10 in the process, and then went 2 for 4 in the second game while making the game-winning catch in centerfield. That's the story for the Greyhounds: versatility. Let's not forget, this is the same team that had Brady Ware hit for a cycle while throwing a no-hitter.

HISTORY: These schools have the most DII baseball national championships

Rollins. Guess who's back? Back again? Rollins swept Barry to reach Cary for a second consecutive year. The Tars find another gear in the postseason and are now 5-1 in the 2023 tournament. They have also scored at least seven runs in each victory, so you'll have to keep up if you are the opposing lineup. Last year, despite losing the first game in Cary, the Tars made a run to the semifinals before falling to Point Loma. Do they have that deep run in the tank this year? You'd be foolish to think they don't as this team just keeps on winning huge games. 

Angelo State. Like Southern New Hampshire, the Rams are back in Cary for a third straight year. Last year, the two Cary stalwarts faced off in the opening round of the finals, a game won by Angelo State 7-4. It would be fun to see them meet again and form a bit of a postseason rivalry as two DII baseball powerhouses. Angelo State has arguably the best offense in the field (statistically speaking) and defeated Colorado Mesa's mighty offense in a two-game sweep by a combined score of 14-2. That's mainly because, as I have said all along, this may be the best pitching the Rams have had in their recent dominance of the South Central. That makes them a strong contender for their first title. 

North Greenville. The Crusaders are looking to be the first repeat DII baseball national champions since Tampa did it in 2006-07. Keep in mind, North Greenville has never lost in Cary, sweeping through its four games to the title last year. Per usual, the Crusaders' bullpen came up big and will be a tremendous asset in the long days and sometimes brutal heat that takes its toll on pitchers in Cary. Catcher John Michael Faile, who now owns the all-time DII home run and RBI marks, had an absolute monster of a super regional, going 5 for 9 with four home runs, six runs scored and nine RBI. Think he wants to add a second ring to his already ridiculous resume? He's also one of six Crusaders with at least 11 home runs on the season, so pitchers beware.

ALL-TIME 9: The DII baseball starting lineup for this century — so far

Cal State San Bernardino. The Coyotes are the newbies of the bunch, as the lone team making its DII baseball finals debut. And I underestimated this team all year long, primarily because I didn't know if the pitching would hold up down the stretch. What we learned is that it doesn't matter because this lineup just keeps piling up runs. The Coyotes' games have all been high-scoring thrillers, winning by scores of 8-7, 10-9, 11-2, 8-6 and 14-8. Giovanni Del Negro (.387, 14 doubles, 13 home runs) leads an offense that has four players with double-digit home runs and four players with 54-plus RBI. This offense can come at you from all spots of the lineup.

Tale of the tape

Here is a statistical breakdown of the final eight teams. A bolded stat indicates that team has the best mark of the remaining eight teams in that statistical category.

Championship Schedule:

• Schedule for Saturday, June 10
  • No. 3 Angelo State 6, No. 4 Rollins 5  

Semifinal Schedule: 

• Schedule for Thursday, June 8
  • Cal St. San Bernardino 16, No. 4 Rollins 11 
  • No. 3 Angelo State 5, No. 6 Southern New Hampshire 3 | (Angelo State advances to championship final) 
• Schedule for Friday, June 9
  • No. 4 Rollins 10, No. 5 Cal St. San Bernardino 8

Third round results:

• Schedule for Wednesday, June 7
  • Cal St. San Bernardino 6, Millersville 5
  • Southern New Hampshire 8, North Greenville 4

Second round results:

• Schedule for Monday, June 5
  • Cal State San Bernardino 10, UIndy 8
  • Rollins 17, Millersville 4
• Schedule for Tuesday, June 6
  • Southern New Hampshire 10, Augustana (SD) 6
  • Angelo State 6, North Greenville 2

First-round results:

• Saturday, June 3:
  • No. 4 Rollins 7, No 5 Cal State San Bernardino 1
  • No. 1 Millersville 6, No. 8 UIndy 5
• Sunday, June 4:
  • No. 3 Angelo State 2, No. 6 Southern New Hampshire 1 
  • No. 2 North Greenville 4, No. 7 Augustana (SD) 1

The DII championship is split into two double-elimination brackets with the winner of each bracket facing off in the national championship. 

• ➡️ Follow every game live via our full scoreboard
• ➡️&�Բ�����;Click or tap here for the full DII baseball championship bracket

The 2023 DII baseball championship is underway and the field of the nation's best DII teams are competing for a spot in the finals, set for June 3-10 in Cary, North Carolina

Here is how to follow the championship:

• ➡️ Follow every game live via our full scoreboard
• ➡️&�Բ�����;Click or tap here for the complete DII regional baseball bracket

Super regionals are May 26-27 from campus sites.

Here's the overall schedule for the 2023 DII baseball tournament:

The 2023 selection show will take place at 11 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 14 on sifoeeprocess.com. The full 64-team field will be announced.