INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - The Southwest Minnesota State University baseball team is ranked eighth in this week's NCAA Division II Central Region rankings released on Wednesday by the NCAA national committee.

The Mustangs are 23-15 overall this season, 19-9 in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference and have a 22-11 record versus region opponents.  SMSU's games earlier this week versus Augustana and Winona State were not counted towards this week's region rankings.  SMSU swept a doubleheader from Augie and split two games with WSU.

SMSU is one of five NSIC schools to appear in the regional rankings with No. 2 St. Cloud State, No. 3 Winona State, No. 5 Minnesota State and No. 7 Minnesota Duluth.  The Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference has three teams ranked this week with No. 1 New Mexico Highlands, No. 4 Mesa State (Colo.) and No. 6 Nebraska-Kearney.

The top six teams in the 21-team region will advance to the NCAA regional tournament on May 13-16.  Automatic bids are granted to the winners of the NSIC and RMAC postseason tournaments, with the remaining four spots awarded on an at-large basis.

SMSU concludes the regular season this weekend at home with a four-game series at Alumni Field versus the University of Mary.  Saturday's doubleheader begins at 1 p.m., while Sunday's twinbill begins at 12 p.m.