No. 1 Taylor to Host Five-Team Bracket in NAIA Opening Round

2026 NAIA Baseball Opening Round Qualifiers | 2026 NAIA Baseball Opening Round Schedule

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The pairings for the 2026 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round were finalized Wednesday night, with Taylor University earning the right to host one of 10 regional sites at Winterholter Field for a fifth consecutive season — a five-team bracket headlined by the top-seeded Trojans.

The 46-team national field draws from 30 conference automatic qualifiers, 15 at-large selections and a single host berth, all assigned seeds by the NAIA Baseball Selection Committee. Of the 10 regional sites, six feature five-team brackets and four feature four-team brackets — TU's pod falling among the former.

Carrying the No. 1 seed at 49-5 after capturing both the Crossroads League regular-season and tournament titles, TU anchors the Upland bracket. Joining the Trojans are No. 17 Abraham Baldwin (39-15, Southern States Athletic Conference tournament runner-up), RV Indiana Tech (41-15, Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference at-large bid), Mount Mercy (38-13, Heart of America Athletic Conference tournament champion) and Shawnee State (32-18, River States Conference tournament runner-up).

Bracket play opens at 11 a.m. on Monday, May 11, when No. 4 seed Mount Mercy and No. 5 seed Shawnee State square off in the Upland bracket's first contest.

The 2:30 p.m. slot brings together No. 2 seed Abraham Baldwin and No. 3 seed Indiana Tech.

TU then takes the diamond at 6 p.m., drawing the winner of the Mount Mercy–Shawnee State opener.

Tuesday mirrors Monday's first-pitch windows of 11 a.m., 2:30 p.m. and 6 p.m., while Wednesday's schedule shifts to 1 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. A winner-take-all championship, if necessary, would be staged Thursday, May 14, at noon.

Each Opening Round pod operates under a double-elimination format, and only the bracket winner at each site advances to the 2026 Avista NAIA World Series at Harris Field in Lewiston, Idaho.

Stay tuned to TaylorTrojans.com for a full preview heading into next week's action.