The Cougars (30-19), who have captured six NCCAA national titles over the years with the most recent coming in 2008, are the No. 3 seed in the tournament that for the first time features two pools of five teams each. MVNU is coming off two straight disappointing losses in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round in which they saw late leads disappear in both games due to errors.

As a team, the Cougars are batting .315 with senior second baseman Michael Hendren (.387), junior first baseman Josh Roberts (.378), and senior outfielder Kodi Veale (.396) leading the way. The MVNU pitching staff has combined for a 3.20 ERA with 324 strikeouts in 357.2 innings with opponents hitting just .259 against them. Junior right-hander Kyle Barr (7-2, 2.18 ERA), senior right-hander Caleb Wright (6-3, 3.45 ERA), senior right-hander Grant Martin (5-3, 3.90 ERA), and junior right-hander Jerrob Decker (4-5, 4.53 ERA) headline the starting rotation for the Cougars, while senior right-hander Steve Miller (1-1, 1.38 ERA, 2 saves), sophomore lefty Tim Harvey (3-0, 0.92 ERA), and sophomore right-hander Darren Athey (1-4, 4.91 ERA, 6 saves) lead the bullpen.

MVNU will get pool play started at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday with a game against No. 6 seed North Greenville (S.C.) University (33-15). On Thursday, the Cougars will face No. 7 seed The Master's (Calif.) College (25-25) at 1 p.m. and No. 10 seed King (Tenn.) College (19-22) at 7:30 p.m. Then, on Friday at 10 a.m., MVNU will close out pool play against No. 2 seed Judson (Ill.) University (42-17).

The other pool features No. 1 seed Southeastern (Fla.) University (41-19), No. 4 seed Cedarville University (33-16), No. 5 seed Malone University (35-22), No. 8 seed Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) University (32-22), and No. 9 seed Oklahoma Wesleyan University (33-27).

The winner of each pool will advance to a best-of-three championship series starting at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and then continuing on Saturday at 11 a.m. to determine the 2011 NCCAA national champion.

To follow the tournament, go to the tournament website at http://www.prascopark.com/default.aspx?contentid=36. Updates will also be available on the Mount Vernon Nazarene University Cougars' Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/MVNU.Cougars.