Herkimer College receives wild card bid for national baseball tournament

HERKIMER – Herkimer College received the final spot in the NJCAA’s Division III national baseball tournament Tuesday morning and enters the eight-team event seeded sixth as the lone wild card.

“I think the kids were happy,” Herkimer coach Jason Rathbun said after watching the NJCAA’s online bracket reveal with the team. “It was sort of a relief because they felt like they should be there.”

For luck, the team picked a different room at the college’s Hummel Corporate and Professional Education Center to view the announcement rather than the one the Generals used last year when they were passed over.

More: Niagara wins final regional baseball tournament at Veterans Memorial Park

The seed matches the Generals’ final national ranking, No. 6, and puts Herkimer on the same side of the double-elimination bracket with two teams it has previously played this season. Herkimer (37-7) opens up Saturday against Northern Essex Community College (41-2), the No. 3 seed from Massachusetts, while Rowan College of South Jersey-Gloucester (44-7) is seeded second and plays No. 7 Oakton Community College (33-26-1) from Illinois in the game that will determine the Generals’ second opponent.

Northern Essex has won 33 consecutive games since a March 18 loss to Region III Hudson Valley Community College. Herkimer had split a doubleheader with Northern Essex two days earlier, winning 7-4 and losing 5-2 on the team’s spring break trip to Florida.

The Generals and Knights play the tournament’s opening game at 9:30 a.m. Saturday at Pioneer Park in Greeneville, Tennessee.

Herkimer swept a Saturday doubleheader and took two of three games in a weekend series against Gloucester when the Roadrunners were ranked No. 1 in the nation. The Generals were 12-2 and 8-0 winners at Veterans Memorial Park in Little Falls May 7; the Roadrunners pulled out an 8-6 win in a nine-inning game the following day after falling behind in the bottom of the eighth.

The No. 1 seed is Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute (46-7) from Gastonia, North Carolina, and the Cobras open against No. 8 St. Cloud Technical and Community College (24-11) from Minnesota.

Niagara County Community College (49-9) enters its third consecutive tournament as the Region III champion after beating Herkimer in Little Falls over the weekend. The Thunderwolves are seeded fourth and meet No. 5 Dallas College-Eastfield (44-10-1) in the final game Saturday.

The tournament runs into the middle of the week with the championship round scheduled for a June 1 start.

Seven of the eight spots were filled by district championships. Region III doubles as the North District championship.

Herkimer had hoped for a wild card bid in 2021 when there were two available. Those bids went to Oakton and Tyler Junior College of Texas, the eventual champion.

The Generals built another impressive resume this spring, going unbeaten in regional competition in the regular season, advancing to the winner-takes-all final of their regional and district tournament, and earning four wins in nine games against automatic qualifiers – the two against Gloucester and one each over Northern Essex and Niagara.

“We played Northern Essex and split with their top two pitchers throwing,” Rathbun said of his team’s experience and the tournament draw, “and we played well against Gloucester.”

Last year’s championship was the sixth won by Tyler since the NJCAA went to its three-division alignment in 1992. Gloucester has won seven Division III national championships, including the first two, and most recently won in 2013. Eastfield is a three-time champion, and Oakton won the 2018 title.

Herkimer has made seven previous World Series appearances, all in a 14-year span and most recently in 2019.

“We’ve been there before and we’ve seen some of these teams,” Rathbun said. “We definitely feel good about (our chances).

“There’s not much more to do except go down there and play.”

The Generals have held no formal practices since the completion of their regional tournament Saturday night. Rathbun said the team will hold a light workout Wednesday before departing by bus later that evening for the drive to Tennessee where they played in their last two tournament appearances. The Generals will practice at Pioneer Park Thursday and participate in tournament festivities Friday.

Jon Rathbun is a sportswriter for the Times Telegram. Email Jon at sports@timestelegram.com.

This article originally appeared on Times Telegram: Herkimer College receives wild card bid for NJCAA baseball tournament