Baseball selected ats No. 3 seed in Lawrenceville Bracket of NAIA Opening Round

UHV's Cristian Garcia (6) celebrates with his teammates after hitting a home run during a game against NCAA Division I Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Riverside Stadium on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (Lily Standridge/UHV Athletics)

May 7, 2025

For the second time in the last three years, UHV baseball will compete for a national championship.

On Wednesday, the Jaguars (38-15) were selected as the No. 3-seed in the Lawrenceville Bracket of the NAIA Opening Round May 12-15 at Georgia Gwinnett College's Grizzly Baseball Complex. They open the tournament against No. 2-seeded Keiser (Fla.)

This is the fifth NAIA Tournament appearance in baseball for UHV and the first time in which the team has received an at-large bid to the tournament.

Georgia Gwinnett, the No. 2-ranked team in the country is the top seed of the bracket. Talladega (Ala.) is the four-seed while St. Xavier (Ill.) is the five-seed.

This will be the first-ever meeting between the Jaguars and Seahawks. UHV has played GGC three times and Talladega once. UHV has never faced St. Xavier.

The Jaguars' 38 wins mark the most in program history and the team has shut out opponents eight times, a program record as well.

UHV boasts the fourth-best pitching staff in the nation with a 3.64 ERA.

Offensively, graduate senior Cristian Garcia ranks fifth in the NAIA for batting average with a .474 clip – a mark which is higher than Tony Rothman's single season record of .469 set in 2008.

The Jaguars finished second in the Red River Athletic Conference regular season standings. The RRAC has three representatives this year in the tournament with No. 1-ranked LSU Shreveport and Louisiana Christian each qualifying via automatic bids.