No. 6 West Chester Collides with No. 2 Colorado Mesa Thursday Night

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GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas – The sixth-ranked West Chester University baseball team returns to action at the NCAA Division II National Championships Thursday night at 8 p.m. when it clashes with second-ranked Colorado Mesa at AirHogs Stadium.
 
And then there were four …
 
West Chester (42-11) is undefeated in the tournament and coming off a two-day layoff while Colorado Mesa (50-11) is 2-1 in the tournament and will be playing its third game in as many days. A win by the Golden Rams on Thursday propels them into the national championship against either St. Thomas Aquinas College (STAC), or UC San Diego.
 
Here is the scenario …
 
If West Chester and STAC both win on Thursday, then both Colorado Mesa and UC San Diego will be eliminated. West Chester and STAC, both being undefeated in the tournament, would then play a Best-of-3 series to determine the national champion. Game one of that series would take place on Friday at 3 p.m. with Game 2 to follow on Saturday at 4 p.m. and an "if necessary" Game 3 at 8 p.m.
 
If, after West Chester's game on Thursday night, all four remaining teams have one loss (meaning both West Chester and STAC lost), then WCU and CMU will play an elimination game on Friday at 8 p.m. That game would follow an elimination game between STAC and UCSD at 4 p.m. The winners would meet on Saturday at 4 p.m. in a winner-take-all national championship game.
 
If West Chester wins and STAC loses, then West Chester advances to Saturday and the national championship. STAC and UCSD would then play an elimination game on Friday at 4 p.m. The winner would advance to Saturday to meet West Chester. That game would be at 4 p.m. If West Chester lost that game, then an "if necessary" game would follow at 8 p.m. to determine the NCAA Division II champion.
 
If the opposite of the above-mentioned scenario occurs (West Chester loses and STAC wins), then West Chester will play Colorado Mesa on Friday at 4 p.m. in an elimination game, and the winner of that will meet ST. Thomas Aquinas College in the national championship game on Saturday. In that scenario, the WCU/CMU winner would have to beat STAC twice.
 
The four regions left in the final four are: East Region (STAC), Atlantic Region (WCU), South Central Region (CMU) and West Region (UCSD).
 
Should West Chester advance to the national championship, it would mark the second straight year, and third time in the last five, that the Atlantic Region representative reached the national finals. Millersville lost to Nova Southeastern in last year's title game while West Chester won the national championship in 2012.
 
West Chester University is still the only team from the Northeastern part of the United States to win the baseball national championship at the Division II level. St. Thomas Aquinas College, hailing from Sparkill, N.Y., has an opportunity to join WCU in that group this weekend.
 
Colorado Mesa played for the national title in 2015, falling to Southern Indiana, 3-2 in 12 innings. UC San Diego's only trip to the national finals was in 2010. The Tritons lost to Southern Indiana, 6-4. St. Thomas Aquinas College has never reached the final four, nor the finals, in its history.