KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Opening Round Schedules and Live Stats ) For the eighth-straight season, 45 teams start the week vying for a NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round title and a spot in the 2016 Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series. The 2016 Opening Rounds open action Tuesday at nine host locations and conclude Friday.

The Opening Round format is a five-team, double-elimination tournament. Three games per day are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, while Thursday is slated for only two, including the championship contest. Friday houses the “if necessary” game should a bracket find itself with two one-loss teams after Thursday.

This year’s hosts include: Auburn Montgomery (Ala.), Davenport (Mich.), Faulkner (Ala.), Georgia Gwinnett, Jamestown (N.D.), Kingsport (Tenn.) Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Appalachian Athletic Conference, Tabor (Kan.), USC Beaufort (S.C.), and Westmont (Calif.).

The 45-team field consists of 31 automatic qualifiers – given to conference regular-season champions, tournament champions or tournament runners-up – and 14 at-large teams. Conferences with 10-or-more members received two automatic qualifiers, while leagues with less than 10 are given one. The Unaffiliated Group comprised of the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) and the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference received three automatic berths due to its size (15 schools).

For the second year, at-large teams were determined by the NAIA Baseball National Selection Committee (NSC). The NSC consists of one representative from each geographic area, a representative from the National Administrative Council (NAC) Rules and Ratings Committee, the president of the NAIA-Baseball Coaches Association and three at-large members. The committee evaluated teams throughout the year on various criteria.

Overall, there are 23 repeat qualifiers from the 2015 National Championship Opening Round, including six teams that won their respective Opening Round last season – Davenport, Faulkner, Lindsey Wilson (Ky.), St. Thomas (Fla.), Tabor (Kan.) and Vanguard (Calif.).

Tennessee Wesleyan and LSU Shreveport (La.) are the only programs that hold the distinction of playing in every Opening Round since its inception in 2009. The Bulldogs, who are the No. 1 seed in the Kingsport Bracket, await the winner of No. 4 Indiana Tech and No. 5 Rio Grande (Ohio) and have a first-pitch scheduled for 6 p.m. EDT on Tuesday.

LSU Shreveport – a No. 4 seed – opens action Tuesday at 11 a.m. CDT against No. 5 Indiana Wesleyan in the Montgomery Bracket.

Six teams in this year’s field have previously won at World Series title, led by defending national champion Lewis-Clark State’s (Idaho) 17. Bellevue (Neb.) (1995), College of Idaho (1998), Faulkner (2013), Tennessee Wesleyan (2012) and William Carey (Miss.) (1969) are the others.

The 2016 Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series is scheduled for May 27 – June 3. The 60th annual event is being played out at Harris Field in Lewiston, Idaho, for the 25th time in NAIA history.

For more information on the 2016 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round, click here.