New London — Mitchell College, as expected, received a spot in the NCAA Division III baseball tournament field on Monday.

The Mariners earned the automatic bid by winning the New England Collegiate Conference championship on May 7.

What they found out while watching the selection show is they’ll serve as a regional host, the first time that’s happened in school history in any sport.

The four-team double elimination tournament begins on Friday at Alumni Field.

“Ecstatic,” head coach Travis Beausoleil said. “It’s great that we get to host but also emblematic of the work that this team has put in. The NCAA sent Eastern (Connecticut State University), the defending national champion, six and a half hours away and gave us a host site. It’s really a big kudos to these guys.”

Third-seeded Mitchell (31-8) will open up regional play against No. 2 Tufts (31-9) at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Top-seeded Wheaton (37-6) and No. 4 Husson (24-17) will play in the first game at 10 a.m.

While Mitchell applied to host a regional, Beausoleil didn’t receive confirmation until Monday.

“I wasn’t sure,” Beausoleil said. “We hadn’t gotten a nod, a wink or an email giving us a couple of hours to prepare. We’re in a meeting right now. We didn’t really know. Seeing that bracket come out, I was a few seconds ahead.”

The Mariners will be making their eighth appearance in the NCAA tournament and third straight. They’ve won a game in each of their last four trips but never captured a regional and own a 5-14 record overall.

The first step is to try to beat Tufts, which earned an automatic bid by winning the New England Small College Athletic Conference championship on Sunday. The Jumbos lost only one conference game this season.

In the 12-1 win over Middlebury in the title game, sophomore Connor Podeszwa, a Waterford High School graduate, picked up the win, allowing one run and five hits in 8.2 innings while striking out seven and walking two. For his effort, he was named the NESCAC Pitcher of the Week.

Wheaton also is enjoying an impressive season, winning the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference tourney title. The Lyons have won 20 of their last 22 games and reside at No. 8 in the national polls.

Mitchell is familiar with Husson, which is located in Bangor, Maine, and belongs to the North Atlantic Conference. The Eagles traveled to New London on March 26 for a doubleheader, losing both games to the Mariners, 17-8 and 6-2.

Beausoleil knows it will be difficult to advance out of the region.

“If it’s not Tufts, it’s going to be someone equally as tough,” Beausoleil said. “There’s 60 teams (in the field) and I can say there’s maybe two or three that I’d like to match up with. Every team is good. And I never really focus on the opponent. I try to make sure that we’re doing our best and playing our game, competing and being tough and doing what we need to do.

“Wheaton is great. We’ve beaten Husson twice here already. We didn’t see Tufts this year but we faced some similar schools. It’s going to be tough competition wherever you go, and it should be. You shouldn’t have a gimme region and this one is not.”

Eastern Connecticut (34-10), the Little East Conference tournament champions and reigning national champion, is heading to Cortland, N.Y., to face Ithaca College on Friday. Cortland meets St. Joseph’s of Long Island in the other game.

Senior Matt Malcom, an East Lyme graduate, helps power the Eastern attack. He’s either first or second on the team in several offensive categories, including home runs (a career-high 14), batting average (.362), RBI (38), walks (29), runs scored (44) and steals (20).

Sophomore lefthander Dan Driscoll of Waterford is one of the team’s top starters, posting a 8-3 record with a 1.74 earned run average. He spent his freshman season at Mitchell before transferring.

ECSU pitching coach Shawn Gilblair spent the previous three seasons on Beausoleil’s staff at Mitchell.

g.keefe@theday.com