HICKORY, NC - For the third time in school history, the Lenoir-Rhyne baseball team will be taking part in an NCAA Regional. This year they enter as the #3 seed and will face off against #6 seeded North Georgia in the opening round.

The Bears and Nighthawks have never face off against each other, with Lenoir-Rhyne coming from the South Atlantic Conference and North Georgia playing in the Peach Belt. All games this weekend will take place at Belmont Abbey, who earned the #2 seed in the Southeast Regional after winning the Conference Carolinas Tournament early last week.

The Nighthawks posted a record of 39-15 this season (23-4 PBC) and fell to Columbus State in the semi-finals of their conference tournament. This game will be a battle of center fielders who won their conference Player of the Year awards, as North Georgia's Andrews Opata was named PBC Player of the Year and Lenoir-Rhyne's Mackenzie Wainwright was the SAC Player of the Year. Joining Opata on the PBC First team was DH Nicholas Stinson, who was the PBC Freshman of the Year. Opata will be one to watch out for as he bats .380 with 92 hits and 40 stolen bases. North Georgia bats .307 as a team and has five individuals batting at least .300. Phillip Ard leads the team with 22 home runs and a .701 slugging percentage. On the mound they are led by their all-conference starters Pierce Williams and Luke Earnhardy, who have a combined 3.55 ERA and a 16-2 record. 

The Bears come into this game with quite possibly the most potent offense in Division II baseball, as eight of the nine players with at least 100 at bats are hitting .300. Led by Wainwright's 22 and Sal Carricato's 21 home runs, the Bears have 117 long balls as a team, which is second in the country behind MSU Denver's 118. Lenoir-Rhyne ranks top-10 nationally in batting average (.348), doubles (126), hits (645), home runs (117), runs (539), runs per game (9.8), shutouts (8), slugging percentage (.628), and strikeouts per nine innings (9.7). The Bears placed 11 on the All-SAC Team with Mackenzie Wainwright, Owen Blackledge, Cole Laskowski, Cole Stanford, and Sal Carricato all being first-team honorees. 

Tomorrow's game is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. from Abbey Yard on the campus of Belmont Abbey University. It is a double elimination tournament, so should the Bears win they will play the winner of Belmont Abbey/Carson Newman on Friday night at 6:00 p.m., and should they lose they will play the loser of that game on Friday at 3:00 p.m.

All information for the tournament can be found HERE.