The NCAA Division III baseball tournament selection committee announced the field for the 2022 NCAA Division III Championships on Monday, May 16. The Spartans received an at-large (Pool C) bid and are in the field for the 2022 Baseball championships.
The Spartans of Aurora University will travel to Whitewater, Wisconsin for the Regional hosted by University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Making their 24th appearance overall and fourth consecutive NCAA Regional appearance, the Spartans are the No. 2 seed in the four-team region and will take on Augustana College on Friday, May 20 with first pitch scheduled for 2:30 p.m. AU is 3-1 against teams in the field of 60 with a pair of wins against MSOE, a win over North Central College and a loss to Webster University
The teams that will participate in the regional are as follows:
- - No. 1 University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (33-8)
- - No. 2 Aurora University (33-9)
- - No. 3 Augustana College (33-10)
- - No. 4 Milwaukee School of Engineering (27-16)
The Spartans earned their place in the 2022 NCAA Division III Championships after winning the 2022 Northern Athletics Conference Conference (NACC) championship. The Spartans have a 33-9 overall record. As a team the Spartans are hitting .338 and having scored 416 runs with 42 home runs, 17 triples and 103 doubles and rank among the top in Division III in almost all statistical categories..As a pitching staff, the Spartans have a 4.36 earned run average and opponents hit .277 against. As a fielding team, the Spartans are fielding .967 and have committed 47 errors in 42 games played.
AU is led by a strong offense of 2022 NACC Player of the Year
Justin Sartori and First-Team All-Conference outfielders
Corey Vondra,
Dylan White and
Jacob Ambuel and catcher
Jett Wedekind. The AU pitching core led by All-Conference selections
Jack Fisher and
Nick Malmberg.
Sartori is hitting .373 with 16 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs, 68 runs batted in, and 55 runs scored thus far on the season. His 68 runs batted in is currently fifth in Division III. He also posted a .458 on-base percentage while slugging .704 for the Spartans. Defensively, Sartori has committed only one error in 292 chances (276 putouts, 15 assists) at first base.
Wedekind is hitting .344 with 13 doubles, one triple, 10 home runs, 45 runs batted in and 53 runs scored. Ambuel came on strong in the last few weeks and has a .359 batting average with 13 doubles, one triple, six home runs, 51 runs batted in and 45 runs scored. Vondra has a .377 batting average with 13 doubles, two triples, three home runs, 34 runs batted in, and 54 runs scored. White is hitting .333 with nine doubles, six triples, five home runs, 46 runs scored, and 38 runs batted in.
Fisher is currently 7-1 overall on the season with a 2.44 earned run average and one save in 70.0 innings pitched, striking out 60 and opponents are hitting .221 against him while Malmberg is having another strong season with a 7-0 overall record, 3.33 earned run average in 67.2 innings pitched, striking out 51, and opponents hit .301 against him.
