Kansas City, MO-The Belhaven baseball team will open up the 2010 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round tournament against Brewton-Parker on Tuesday afternoon at Smith-Wills Stadium starting at 3:00 PM. The Blazers, ranked 14th in the final NAIA Top 25 Poll learned that they will be the number two seed when the tournament brackets were released by the NAIA Friday afternoon. There are nine National Championship Opening Round sites, with the tournaments running from May 18-21.

Belhaven is 40-15 overall and received an At-Large bid to this year's tournament after having won the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Regular Season Championship. The Blazers are making their second appearance in the national tournament with the first coming last season. The Blazers went 3-2 at the tournament hosted by Lee University last season. Brewton-Parker, seeded third and ranked 22nd in final top 25 Poll, hails from the Southern States Athletic Conference and enters the tournament with an overall record of 40-16. The Barons were the SSAC tournament champions. The Barons are making their third national tournament appearance and were the 1997 NAIA National Champions.

Missouri Baptist (41-13) is the number one seed and ranked 12th in the final NAIA Top 25 Poll. They will play the winner of the game between Texas Wesleyan University and Kansas Wesleyan University (32-17) who round out the field of five teams. The winners of the nine National Championship Opening Round tournaments, in addition to World Series host Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), will meet at the final site of the 54th Annual Avista-NAIA World Series from May 28-June 4 in Lewiston, Idaho.

The official NAIA press release with all nine opening round pairings can be viewed by clicking here. The tournament webpage with all the up to date information on the tournament can be viewed by clicking here.