Norton's Ryan, Wheaton Baseball Team Ready for NCAA Tournament

The second-seeded Wheaton College baseball team, ranked no.15 overall in the latest D3baseball.com national poll, will make its 12th appearance in the NCAA Division III Tournament in program history on Wednesday, May 15 when the Lyons take on seventh-seeded Salem State University in Harwich at Whitehouse Field.

The Lyons will be counting on former Norton High standout Sean Ryan, who hit .350 with 12 doubles and 22 RBI, while earning NEWMAC All-Conference first team honors. 

Wheaton (30-10) earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament after claiming its 13th New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) title in the 15-year history of the league with a 6-3 victory in the championship game over MIT on Saturday, May 4, at Sidell Stadium.

The Vikings (25-13) also received an automatic bid into the New England Regional winning their second-ever Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC) championship, and first since 2006, over Westfield State by a 5-0 score on Sunday, May 5.

Fourth-seeded Western New England (31-11) will take on fifth-seeded MIT (27-11) in game one of the New England Regional while first-seeded Southern Maine (37-7) will play eighth-seeded Daniel Webster (28-10) in game two. Third-seeded Endicott (32-12) rounds out Wednesday’s slate of games as the Gulls matchup against sixth-seeded St. Joseph’s of Maine (30-12) in game three. Wheaton plays Salem State in game four on Wednesday night.

Wheaton is 7-4 overall against this year’s New England field posting a 3-2 record versus MIT while going 2-0 against Western New England. The Lyons split a home-and-home series versus Southern Maine and dropped a 2-1 decision to St. Joseph’s (Maine) on March 11 in Lake Wales, Fla. Wheaton defeated Salem State, 6-5, in its only contest against the Vikings this season on the road (March 28).

The Lyons rank inside the top-50 among all NCAA Division III teams in several categories including: earned run average (16th, 2.92 ERA), hits allowed per nine innings (12th, 8.01), fielding percentage (sixth, 0.974), hits (46th, 416), doubles (58th, 79), walks plus hits per nine innings pitched (sixth, 1.17), strikeout-to-walk ratio (49th, 2.32), walks allowed per nine innings (24th, 2.56), sacrifice bunts seventh, 48) and win-loss percentage (25th, 0.75).