With the regular season closing May 3, the Liberty League Championship Tournament for baseball is set to commence. This year, the Ithaca College baseball team will host the tournament for the first time since the 2022 season, when they captured their first Liberty League title in program history.

The Bombers earned the No. 1 overall seed and the rights to host the tournament, looking to clinch their fourth consecutive Liberty League title this year. Ithaca is followed by the Skidmore College Thoroughbreds at No. 2, Clarkson University Golden Knights at No. 3 and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers at No. 4. The Bombers finished with a combined 6-1 record against the three teams during the regular season.

The tournament is a double-elimination bracket and will begin at noon May 8 with the Bombers taking on the Engineers. The Bombers finished the regular season 24-13, posting a 16-5 conference record. The Bombers also swept their regular season doubleheader on the road against the Engineers on April 13, winning both games by scores of 10-2 and 2-1. The Engineers racked up a 25-13 record during the regular season and finished with 12 Liberty League wins.

The second game on Thursday will feature the Thoroughbreds against the Golden Knights at 3:30 p.m. Skidmore finished the regular season with a 20-15-2 overall record, finishing with two ties and 12-6 in conference play, while Clarkson tallied an 18-13 overall record and finished 10-8 within the Liberty League. 

The winners of each game will face each other in the fourth game May 9 at 1 p.m. while the losers will fight to keep their season alive in an elimination game at 10 a.m.

Over the past three seasons, the Bombers have a perfect 9-0 record within the Liberty League Championship Tournament, earning bids to the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship each season. The South Hill squad went undefeated in its region in 2022 and 2023, advancing to the NCAA DIII Super Regional in consecutive seasons but fell just one win short of a trip to the DIII World Series in 2022. In 2024, the Bombers failed to win a game in the regional round, falling to the then-defending national champion University of Lynchburg Hornets.

The Bombers look to build off of past seasons and earn four consecutive Liberty League Championship Tournament titles and NCAA Championship appearances.