INDIANAPOLIS - The NCAA released the 56 selections to the 2022 Division II Baseball NCAA Tournament on Sunday night, with Northwest Nazarene selected as one of six participants in the West Regional.

NNU earned the at-large bid with a 30-21 overall record and a very strong strength of schedule despite falling to Western Oregon in the GNAC Championships last weekend. 

NNU is the 4-seed, and will head to San Diego to square off against top seed Point Loma and 5-seed Cal Poly Pomona. Two-seed Azusa Pacific, 3-seed Cal State Monterey Bay, and 6-seed Western Oregon also received bids for the regional, with Azusa serving as the host of the pod. Winners of each pod will head to Super Regionals and play a best-of-three series next weekend for the chance to go to the eight-team DII Baseball Championships in Cary, North Carolina.

The Nighthawks will open against Cal Poly Pomona on Thursday, May 19 at 11 a.m. Pacific / 12 p.m. Mountain. The loser of game one will then take on Point Loma in game two. Regardless of a win or a loss, Point Loma will then play the winner of the first game in game three. With there being three teams in a double elimination pod, the scenarios can be a bit confusing, but here is the explanation from the NCAA on what follows after the first few games:

- If two teams remain after game two, games three to five will be a best-of-three series between the remaining teams to determine the advancing team to Super Regionals.
- If two teams remain after game three, the remaining teams will play in game four. The team that is 2-0 would win the regional title with a game four win. If the 1-1 team wins game four, then the same teams will play again in game five to determine the advancing team.
- If three teams remain and are each 1-1 after game three, then NNU and Cal Poly Pomona will play in game four. The winner of game four will then face the Point Loma in a winner-take-all game five for chance to head to Super Regionals.

Point Loma (43-7) won the PacWest regular season and earned the auto-bid from the conference since they do not hold a conference tournament. Azusa Pacific () finished second in the PacWest and earned the first at-large bid. Cal State Monterey Bay (36-15) won the CCAA regular season but dropped their first two games of the conference tournament, still having a good enough resume to receive the second at-large. Cal Poly Pomona (35-17) finished second in the CCAA and went on to win the CCAA tournament for their auto-bid. Western Oregon (34-18) was co-regular season champs of the GNAC along with NNU and then won the GNAC tournament to earn the final auto bid to regionals.

This will be just NNU's second appearance in the NCAA postseasons for baseball, with the first coming last season when they made it all the way to Cary and won a game there to finish sixth in the nation. With the CCAA not participating in sports last spring, the regional was trimmed to just three total teams with NNU hosting Azusa Pacific and Western Oregon. NNU dropped their first game, but then rattled off three-straight dramatic wins to advance to the national championships.

More info, including live coverage links and ticketing options, will be posted as it becomes available. A full regionals preview will be posted on nnusports.com later this week.