Will the Hatters be hosting an NCAA Regional at Melching Field in DeLand June 1-3? Could it be?

Things are certainly lining up that way. Mark May 28 on your schedule. That’s the day the NCAA will make the big announcement.

As part of 2018 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship, a total of 64 teams —selected based on won-loss records and power rankings, among other key criteria — are divided into 16 regionals, which are double-elimination tournaments. The 16 regional winners are then pared to eight teams following best-of-three-game series, called Super Regionals, with those eight advancing to the 2018 College World Series, held annually in Omaha, Nebraska.

The 16 sites for NCAA Regionals will be announced by the Division I Baseball Committee on Sunday, May 27, at 9 p.m. on the ESPN Bottom Line. The 64-team field for the NCAA Tournament will be revealed live on ESPNU on Monday, May 28, at noon.

Of the 64 teams, 31 teams will receive automatic qualification, with the remaining best 33 teams selected on an at-large basis by the NCAA committee. Sixteen teams will be seeded, and each of those teams will be placed at one of the regional sites.

A regional in DeLand? (Reserve a ticket now.)

Clearly, great anticipation, and momentum, is building for the Hatters. Entering the final weekend of the regular season, they were ranked in the top 25 in every major national poll, including No. 13 in the D1Baseball.com poll, No. 15 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll and No. 17 in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

As a result, the Hatters were in position to host a regional for the first time ever. There was still work to do, including a final ASUN series against USC Upstate at home. Word of their rising stock, however, was taking hold nationwide.

An excerpt from one article (dated May 14), published in multiple newspapers across the United States: There’s no way that Stetson (40-11) gets left out as a regional host at this point thanks to a No. 7 RPI ranking. Stetson’s 2,500-seat facility is a little on the small side, but that shouldn’t prevent the Hatters from hosting in DeLand, Florida.

As the college baseball world waits for its playoffs, there are plenty of storylines circling the Hatters.

• Head coach Steve Trimper, in only his second season at the helm, has led Stetson to its 10th 40-win season and its first since 2011.
• The Stetson pitching staff has dominated all season. The Hatters allowed less than three runs per game during their current 11-game win streak, which was the longest since 2007.
• Stetson has already wrapped up the No. 1 seed for the ASUN Championship Tournament, which will start play May 23 at the University of North Florida.
• The Hatters set a new school mark with a 30-3 home record at Melching Field.
• Going into the final weekend of the regular season, the Hatters were on the verge of setting a new program record for strikeouts (for the third time in as many seasons under pitching coach Dave Therneau). Stetson pitchers set a new record with 485 in 2016, bettered that mark to 538 last year and had 534 as of May 14.
• Junior right-hander Logan Gilbert established a new Stetson record for strikeouts in a season. His strikeouts this year put him on pace to perhaps have the second greatest strikeout season in ASUN history.
• Senior Brooks Wilson moved into a new role this year after passing up an opportunity to play professionally — and has excelled. Wilson was drafted by the Texas Rangers last summer but decided to return to Stetson, where he moved from No. 1 starter to ace closer. In that role, he set a new school and ASUN record for saves in a season (19), and he was well within striking distance of the NCAA single-season saves mark (24).
• Both Wilson and Gilbert are likely finalists for the 2018 Golden Spikes Award, presented annually to the top player in college baseball. Both were on the midseason watch list.

One other noteworthy bit of news: The Hatters have not only done well on the baseball field this season, but they’ve also succeeded in the classroom — with an overall GPA of 3.27. Gilbert earned a 3.5 cumulative GPA and was selected as the Hatters 2018 ASUN Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Exciting times for Stetson Baseball.

-Michael Candelaria