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The Franklin Pierce University baseball team was selected as the third seed for this week's NCAA Championship East Regional, hosted by Southern New Hampshire at Penmen Field in Manchester, N.H. The Ravens open the double-elimination tournament on Thursday, May 17 against fourth-seeded Saint Anselm at 7 p.m. The East Regional's other particpants are top-seeded Southern New Hampshire, second-seeded Le Moyne, fifth-seeded Wilmington (Del.) and sixth-seeded Dowling. The Ravens are five-time NCAA Regional champions (2010, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2003) and finished last week as the runner-up to Le Moyne in the Northeast-10 Championship.

We plan to update this page throughout the week with previews, highlights and reaction from players and coaches. Continue to check back for more content.

Friday Night: Game vs. Wilmington (Del.)

After the win on Thursday night against Saint Anselm, the Ravens headed for a winner's bracket matchup against Wilmington (Del.) on Friday night at the NCAA Championship East Regional. With Saint Anselm's win over Southern New Hampshire earlier in the day, the winner of the Friday night contest would be the only team to head into Saturday undefeated in the double-elimination tournament. Our game story will tell you all about how the Ravens made sure it was them, but here's the video we've got.

First up, we'll start with pitching again, as Ryan Thompson went the distance, threw a six-hitter and allowed just one unearned run to pick up the victory. After the outing, we talked to him about his performance and also brought in Kevin McGowan to talk about what he sees coming up in his start on Saturday night, where another win would put the team through to the championship round:

Here's the final out of the game, as Thompson induces a soft line drive to Dan Hennigan at second base:

Now we'll go to the game highlights. Here's an RBI single by Zach Mathieu that brought home Hennigan with the game's first run, way back in the top of the first inning:

With the game still 1-0, Wilmington loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the third and threatened to tie or take the lead. But, Thompson got a popup to shallow left and then this lineout to center field to keep the Wildcats off the board and strand the bases loaded:

The Ravens plated five runs in the top of the fifth to break the game open at 6-0, capitalizing on a pair of Wilmington errors in the inning. Here, Calvin Graves drops down a sacrifice bunt, but reaches on an error which also allows Anthony Peguero to come around to score:

Here, James Roche pulls the ball down the third-base line. Only a diving stop by the third baseman keeps him from extra bases, but he reaches first with an RBI infield single anyway, as Graves comes home:

Here, Nick LaCroix puts an RBI single back up the middle to drive in Hennigan. The center fielder threw to the plate to try to throw out Hennigan, but the ball got away, allowing Roche to scoer as well:

Lastly, LaCroix comes around to score as Matt Walsh reaches on an error:

Thursday Night: Game vs. Saint Anselm

The Ravens finally got to open the NCAA Championship East Regional against Saint Anselm on Thursday night. You can head over to our game story for a full recap, but here's some of the video we shot.

We'll begin with the man of the hour, Jack Crawford, who tossed a three-hit shutout and struck out eight in the win. After the game, we talked to him about his success, and also chatted with Ryan Thompson about how he's going to look to keep the momentum rolling on Friday against Wilmington (Del.):

Here's the final out of the game, as Crawford gets the last batter to fly out to finish the shutout:

Here's Dan Hennigan scoring the game's first run as Zach Mathieu reaches on an error:

And, lastly, here's Crawford stranding Saint Anselm runners on second and third in the top of the sixth:

Wednesday Afternoon: Practice and Thoughts from Jack Crawford

The Ravens had their official, 60-minute-only, NCAA pre-regional practice scheduled for early Wednesday evening at Penmen Field in Manchester, N.H., the site of the NCAA Championship East Regional. However, before they left, they got one final full practice in at home on Pappas Field.

Jack Crawford will take the ball for the Ravens in their East Regional opener against Saint Anselm at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Penmen Field. Crawford has been to NCAA Regional play before, at Pappas Field in fact, as a sophomore at Dominican (N.Y.) in 2009, but Thursday night will mark his first appearance on the mound in NCAA Championship play. On Wednesday afternoon, we talked to the graduate student left-hander about what that all means to him:

While we were down at the field, we grabbed a few clips of the Raven infield doing their thing during the team's final full practice before the tournament:

Tuesday Afternoon: Practice and Words from Roche, Fahy

After playing four games in three days over the weekend at the Northeast-10 Championship, the Ravens had just a light practice on Monday before beginning preparations in earnest on Tuesday afternoon. The club started outside, but Mother Nature had other ideas, forcing activity inside after a handful of defensive drills. The lineup then made use of the Bubble and its indoor batting cage to get some swings in despite the wet weather. We grabbed a little bit of footage (though not as much as we had planned, had the weather cooperated) and chatted with graduate student center fielder James Roche and Assistant Coach Mike Fahy.

Roche was a three-time All-Region selection at Bentley from 2008-10, and is likely to earn that honor again, as he is already an All-Northeast-10 First Team selection for the Ravens. However, the 2012 campaign marks his first foray into NCAA Championship competition. We talked to Roche about what that means to him personally, as well as what he, as a captain, expects from his team this week:

Among his many duties with the baseball program, Fahy has a significant role in managing the Franklin Pierce pitching staff. We chatted with him about what he saw in last week's Northeast-10 Championship and what the keys for the staff will be in this week's East Regional:

Lastly, here's footage of Roche, freshman catcher Matt Walsh and sophomore first baseman Zach Mathieu taking some swings in the batting cage: