COMPLETE NCAA DIVISION III BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP BRACKET
INDIANAPOLIS | The National Collegiate Athletic Association released its 64-team bracket for the 2026 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship on Monday afternoon, and Farmingdale State College will begin its journey by traveling to Winchester, Va., to face host Shenandoah University on Friday morning (May 15) at 11 a.m.
Friday's other game to start the four-team regional at
Kevin Anderson Field at Bridgeforth Stadium will pit Transylvania University (Lexington, Ky.) and 2025 national finalist Messiah University (Grantham, Pa.) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday action will feature an elimination game at 11 a.m., the winner's bracket contest at 2:30 p.m., and another elimination game at 6 p.m. The regional championship is slated for Sunday at 11 a.m., and an if necessary game would take place 45 minutes after the first contest.
The winner of the regional will advance to the May 22-23 super regional round, with the final eight teams converging on Classic Auto Group Park in Eastlake, Ohio, for the national championship rounds, May 29-June 4.
Head coach
Keith Osik's Rams enter the tournament with a 27-9 record, and their 21 game winning streak is the second-longest in the nation behind top-ranked Denison University's 39. FSC won its second straight and record 10th Skyline Conference Championship on Sunday, defeating the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy by a 5-2 score in the title game. Junior right-handed pitcher
Thomas O'Neill (Farmingdale, N.Y.) was named the Championship's Most Outstanding Player after earning his second win of the tournament, and needed just 11 pitches (eight strikes) to earn the final four outs. Freshman outfielder
Matt Faraone (East Yaphank, N.Y.) broke a 2-2 deadlock with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, as he drove home the game-winning run on a single up the middle against the Mariners.
Farmingdale State, which received votes in the May 5 edition of the ABCA Division III Coaches Poll, enters NCAA play with the No. 3 batting average in the country, as it has hit at a .363 clip. The Rams' offense ranks 15th with a .455 on-base percentage, and is paced by Skyline Conference Player of the Year and senior outfielder
Richie Heyder (Holbrook, N.Y.), who leads the nation with a .608 on-base percentage while ranking sixth and eighth in slugging percentage (.872) and batting average (.468), respectively. An All-Region selection last spring who hit two home runs in as many games during 2025 NCAA play at the Johns Hopkins regional in Baltimore, he was named a Preseason All-America honoree entering 2026 by D3baseball.com.
FSC's pitching staff enters NCAA competition with a 4.87 earned run average, and are buoyed by O'Neill and senior All-Skyline Conference selections
Derek Watts (Baldwin, N.Y.) and
TJ Cox (Mineola, N.Y.). An all-region selection one year ago, Watts owns a 4-4 record with a 4.18 ERA, seven saves and 33 strikeouts across his 20 appearances and 51.2 innings of work. Cox has starts in five of his 12 appearances, sporting a 7-0 record with a 3.33 ERA, 21 strikeouts and two saves. O'Neill's (4-1, 46 K, 41.1 IP) 2.18 ERA is the top mark amongst qualifying Rams hurlers.
This marks FSC's 10th trip to NCAA play (2008-14; 2019, 2025), including a trip the Division III College World Series in Grand Chute, Wisconsin in 2009 – where the Rams faced off with Shenandoah on the opening day of the tournament. Shenandoah leads the all-time series between the two program's 2-1, which includes a split of the teams' doubleheader at Farmingdale State on April 21, 2013.
Shenandoah (35-10) was ranked seventh in the ABCA poll last week, as well as No. 8 in the D3baseball.com tally. The Hornets captured their fifth Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday by defeating second-ranked University of Lynchburg in an if necessary title game, 14-4. Junior right-handed pitcher Blaine Griffin was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament, and enters NCAA play with a 10-3 record with a 3.26 earned run average, .248 batting average against and 46 strikeouts in 69 innings of work as SU's ace. Outfielder Kemper Omps (team-high .415 avg.) and second baseman Carl Keenan (.398, 1.055 OPS, 52 R) joined Griffin and four other Hornets on the ODAC All-Tournament Team, while Tyler Smith (.318, 12 HR) and Jaime Padilla (.392, 1.109 OPS, 62 R) have 58 and 53 RBI, respectively.
Transylvania (29-12) captured the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship behind a Most Outstanding Player performance from Chris Hedinger, while
Messiah (32-12) repeated as the Middle Athletic Conference Commonwealth champions after earning the national runner-up trophy one year ago. Both teams received votes in last week's ABCA Coaches Poll.
