2023 Osprey Ben Hoover and Birmingham-Southern Advance to the D-III College World Series

Photo Credit: Olivia Daddona

HCBL alum Ben Hoover (North Fork ‘23) and the Birmingham-Southern Panthers have captured the nation with a cinderella run in the NCAA Division-III Baseball Tournament in the program’s final season.

Hoover, a Junior at Birmingham-Southern pitched in nine games for North Fork in the HCBL last season where he pitched 11.1 innings with a save.

Birmingham-Southern College announced on March 27th that the school was going to be closing at the end of May. At the time of the announcement, the Panthers had a record of 13-10. The Panthers would go on to finish the regular season winning 16 of their last 18 games to finish with a record of 29-12.

The Panthers would fall short in the Southern Athletic Association Tournament but earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division-III Tournament. Birmingham-Southern would win their regional going a perfect 3-0 and would go onto the super regionals sweeping Denison in two straight games to advance to the Division-III College World Series.

Hoover, a native of Fairhope, Alabama has pitched in 10 games this season for Birmingham-Southern with an ERA of 3.97 in 11.1 innings pitched. 

Hoover’s most recent appearance came in the Panthers opening game of the Division-III regional against Transylvania University where he tossed a scoreless seventh inning with a pair of strikeouts in a 21-7 win.

Hoover and the Panthers start play in the Division-III College World Series on Friday at Classic Park in Eastlake, Ohio against the #2 seed Salve Regina.