After claiming the 2010 Heartland Conference Baseball Championship, the Incarnate Word baseball team has learned where, when and who they will be facing in the South Central Regional Tournament.

The Cardinals (40-16) enter the regional round of the NCAA Division II Tournament as the No. 4 seed and will face Emporia State from Kansas on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Warrensburg, Missouri at Crane Stadium of University of Central Missouri.

The UIW-ES matchup is the third game of the regional tournament's opening day of games. Play begins at noon with the Abilene Christian (No. 2 seed, 46-13) and St. Mary's University (No. 5 seed, 39-17) and then continues with the host team, Central Missouri (No. 1 seed, 47-8), taking on the sixth-seeded Nebraska-Omaha (32-18) at 3:30 p.m.

The tournament is a double-elimination event, and the loser of the UIW-Emporia State matchup stays to play the winner of the UCM-Nebraska-Omaha game on Friday at 3:30 p.m.

Incarnate Word just finished battling through the Heartland Conference's own double elimination tournament, losing its first game to Texas-Permian Basin and then running the table to claim the title – defeating UTPB twice on Sunday and ending the season on a four-game winning streak.

Of the five other teams in the regional tournament, UIW has only faced one this season – St. Mary's, which they have a 3-5 record against. Of the other schools, the Cardinals faced Abilene Christian last year, a 5-2 season-opening loss at Sullivan Field. Of the remaining three teams, Incarnate Word has only faced Emporia State, and that game happened in 1987 – meaning the Cardinals have never taken the field against Central Missouri or Nebraska-Omaha.

To view the South Central Regional Tournament home page on the UCM website, click here.

To view the Regional Tournament Bracket, click here.