The University of Maine’s baseball team will play in the NCAA Division I Regional in Coral Gables, Florida, on Friday when the Black Bears will take on the University of Miami Hurricanes.
UMaine is 32-19, which is the most wins since the 2013 Black Bears went 37-22. The Black Bears won their first America East Tournament championship since 2011 over the weekend at Binghamton.
Miami, 40-19, is the ninth overall seed among the 64 teams that earned berths to the 16 four-team double-elimination regionals.
Louisiana, 40-22, and the University of Texas, 38-20, are the other two teams in the Coral Gable regional.
UMaine and Miami have a long history dating back to when friends coach John Winkin of UMaine and Miami coach Ron Fraser began scheduling games against each other.
The tournament is composed of conference tournament champions, who earn automatic berths, and a number of at-large teams that didn’t win their league tournaments but had outstanding seasons.
The 16 winners will then advance to the super regionals, which are best-of-three series between two teams at one of their fields.
The eight super regional winners advance to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
UMaine won the America East regular season title with a 19-5 league record and then beat UMass Lowell 10-7, the University of Maryland Baltimore County 3-1 and host Binghamton 6-1 to claim the tourney championship.
UMaine has won seven in a row and 29 of its last 39 games after a 3-10 start.