27 May 2026 Trojans headed to NCAA Tournament, draw Southern Miss in Hattiesburg Regional
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The NCAA announced Monday that the Trojan baseball team has been selected to the NCAA Tournament and will compete in the Hattiesburg Regional hosted by Southern Mississippi. Little Rock is the No. 4 seed and will face No. 1 seed Southern Miss in the opening round Friday at 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
No. 2 seed University of Virginia will face No. 3 seed Jacksonville State University in the other opening-round matchup. That game is scheduled for 6 p.m.
The regional appearance marks the second consecutive NCAA Tournament berth for Little Rock and the first back-to-back regional appearances in program history.
“I’m not joking about, hey, let’s make this a tradition,” Curry said. “I don’t take it lightly. It’s quite an honor to sit in a room and know your name is going to pop up and be confident in that. It’s a proud day. We get to celebrate this program, where it started and where it is now. We’re competing at a high level academically, in the community and on the field.”
The Trojans competed in the Baton Rouge Regional last season, advancing to the regional final before falling to eventual national champion Louisiana State University. Little Rock earned national attention during that run after defeating nationally ranked Dallas Baptist and LSU on the same day to force a winner-take-all regional championship game. Little Rock enters NCAA play fresh off its second consecutive Ohio Valley Conference Tournament championship Sunday in Marion, Ill. The Trojans rallied from a 6-1 deficit to defeat Eastern Illinois 10-6 in the title game, capping an unforgettable postseason stretch that featured six wins in five days and seven games overall during tournament play. Sunday’s championship victory also marked the 300th career win at Little Rock for head coach Chris Curry during one of the most successful seasons in school history.
The Trojans established a new program record for victories this season and once again battled through the loser’s bracket to secure another NCAA Tournament appearance.
Freshman reliever Tag Andrews was named OVC Tournament Most Valuable Player after helping anchor a pitching staff that carried the Trojans throughout the postseason.
“It was tough this week, it really was,” Andrews said. “But everybody showed up every day wanting to be part of it. Even in those elimination games, everybody believed we could go out there and get it done.”
Six Trojans earned OVC All-Tournament Team honors, including Andrews, Nico Baumbach, Jerdy Lopez, Blake Simpson, Brody Bunting and Cooper Chaplain.
Baumbach, who returned for another season after previously planning to move into coaching, said the opportunity to experience postseason baseball again made the decision worthwhile.
“It’s been a long journey for me,” Baumbach said. “I’d been here twice before and didn’t get the opportunity to make a regional, then I watched them do it last year. Coach Curry gave me the chance to come back and play, and I’m just thankful to be part of a winning program and another regional run.”
Curry said the experience from last season’s NCAA Tournament run has helped shape the confidence inside the program entering this year’s regional.
“We wanted to establish consistency and show last year wasn’t a one-year fluke,” Curry said. “Now there’s an expectation here to compete for championships every season. There’s confidence in this team, and there’s no panic. We know what this stage looks like now, and we believe we can compete with anybody there.”
Little Rock now turns its attention to NCAA Regional play as the Trojans prepare to continue a historic postseason run.
