Courtesy of NSU Athletics
NORFOLK, Va. — The MEAC champion Norfolk State baseball team will make its first-ever NCAA Division I Baseball Championship appearance this weekend as part of a four-team regional hosted by East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina.
Norfolk State baseball (25-26) are the No. 4 seed in the Greenville Regional and will face No. 1 seed ECU from the American Athletic Conference on Friday at noon at Clark-LeClair Stadium. The game will be broadcast on ESPN3.
The Pirates (41-15) are ranked 17th this week by Baseball America.
The other teams in the regional include No. 2 seed and 25th ranked Charlotte (39-19) out of Conference USA and No. 3 seed Maryland (28-16) out of the Big Ten. Those two will play at 6 p.m. Friday. The losers of the two games and winners of the two games play Saturday.
“I’m so happy for our players, their families and the University,” head coach Keith Shumate said. “We didn’t care where they put us, we’re just excited to be part of the tournament. We look forward to competing against some excellent ball clubs.”
The Spartans enter postseason with a 25-26 record and will be facing East Carolina for the sixth time. ECU leads the all-time series with NSU 5-0, including a 9-1 win in 2018. NSU is 0-1 all-time against Maryland (1-0 loss in 2012) and has never faced Charlotte.
Head Coach Keith Shumate talked about his teams resilience after winning the 2021 MEAC Championship.
“Our team has shown resiliency all year long. We were dead in the water a bunch of times, but they just keep fighting, We didn’t talk about (2019) at all, but our experience showed today,” Shumate said. “We overcame adversity all year. I just told our guys, just focused on the next pitch and getting a little better every day and we’d be in this position.”