The University of Houston-Victoria Jaguars will begin the opening round of the NAIA Baseball Championships on May 18-21 in Fresno, Calif.
Opening-round pairings were released Friday with the Jaguars joining British Columbia, host Fresno Pacific (Calif.), Point Loma Nazarene (Calif.) and Ohio Dominican in the double-elimination tournament beginning Tuesday. The winner advances to the 54th annual Avista-NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho on May 28-June 4.
The No. 4-seed Jaguars will open play against No. 5 Ohio Dominican in the mini-tournament opener on Tuesday at 11 a.m. No. 2 Fresno Pacific and No. 3 Point Loma Nazarene follow in Game 2 at 2:30 p.m. The UHV-ODU winner meets top-seeded British Columbia in Game 3 at 6 p.m.
Wednesday's second day has the Game 1 loser facing the Game 2 loser in the opening game, followed by the Game 2 winner and Game 3 winner from opening day. The loser of Game 3 meets the winner of Game 4 in an elimination game to end play for the day. Play will continue Thursday with elimination games, with Friday serving as championship day.
UHV fans can keep up with the action on the internet by going to http://www.uhvjaguars.com/ and clicking on the NAIA Championships logo in the top right corner.
The Jaguars advanced to the NAIA Baseball Championships for the second straight year with a 17-13 win over Lambuth University in the championship of the Association of Independent Institutions conference tournament. The Jaguars went 4-0 in the double-elimination tournament.
Nine sites will be used for the opening round tournament and include Joliet, Ill., Riverside, Calif., Cleveland, Tenn., Oklahoma City, Lubbock, Daytona Beach, Fla., Columbus, Ga., and Jackson, Miss., along with Fresno.
The Jaguars enter the tournament with a 31-20 record and received five votes in the latest NAIA Top 25 poll.
Three other Texas teams will also participate in the opening round tournament and include Lubbock Christian and UT-Brownsville playing in Lubbock and Texas Wesleyan playing in Jackson, Miss.
