BABSON PARK, Fla. (May 26, 2022) – The Webber International University baseball team is set to face the No. 15 Faulkner University Eagles in its opening game of the 2022 Avista NAIA Baseball World Series on Friday, May 27, at 6 p.m. eastern time on Harris Field in Lewiston, Idaho.
 
It is the first world series appearance for the Warriors (41-20 overall) in the 29 years of its program history. Webber will face Faulkner (37-15), a team they faced on the road early on in the regular season. The Eagles were ranked sixth in the nation at that time and the Warriors were able to sweep them in a three-game series, outscoring Faulkner 19-5 in total.
 
The Warriors enter the double-elimination tournament as the No.10 seed while Faulkner is the No. 7 seed. The winner of tomorrow's contest will advance to take on No. 2-seeded Tennessee Wesleyan University on Saturday, May 28, at 9:30 p.m. eastern time. The loser will await the loser between Westmont College and the hosts, Lewis-Clark State College on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
 
"Really proud to see the work that we put in all year pay off with this great opportunity," said Head Coach Collin Martin. "Aside from the excitement of being the first team in this program's history to make it to this table with the nine other teams remaining in the country, the experience that these guys will get in Lewiston will be once in a lifetime. These guys battled all year and hopefully the schedule we played has helped prepare us for this tournament."
 
Webber is 4-3 in the postseason after going 1-2 in the Sun Conference tournament and 3-1 in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. All three losses in the postseason came at the hand of St. Thomas University. However, the Warriors defeated St. Thomas 17-6 to win the Miami Gardens Bracket Championship and earn its first Avista NAIA World Series appearance.
 
The Eagles are 6-1 in the postseason with their only loss being in the Southern States Athletic Conference Championship Final to William Carey University. Faulkner were the hosts for the Montgomery bracket where they went 3-0 to advance to its ninth-straight world series appearance.
 
Coach Martin continued saying, "At this point, anyone can beat anyone. We'll do our best to slow things down and focus on every day as it comes. Right now, that's on Faulkner. Of course they're a good team that has a lot of experience in the World Series. We played three good games against them in Montgomery this year and they played what appears to be their best baseball from that point forward. Anything can happen out here and we're excited to be competing for a National Championship."