By KEVIN ECKLEBERRY

Daily News

The wait is almost over for the LaGrange College Panthers.

LaGrange College’s baseball team beat Greensboro 7-5 on April 28 to win a third consecutive USA South tournament championship.

On Friday, nearly three weeks since their most recent game, the Panthers will get back on the field for their opening game in the NCAA Division III tournament.

There are 58 teams in the tournament, and they’ll each compete in a regional this weekend.

While most of the regionals will include four teams, LaGrange College will participate in a two-team regional along with Birmingham Southern.

Birmingham Southern will host the best-of-five series, with the winner advancing to a two-team super-regional next week.

The eight super-regional winners will advance to the Division III World Series.

LaGrange College and Birmingham Southern will play one game on Friday, two games on Saturday, and possibly two games on Sunday.

LaGrange College and Birmingham Southern are familiar with one another since they played a three-game series at the start of the season.

LaGrange College, which hosted the series in early February, won two of the three games.

LaGrange College won the first two games 7-2 and 5-2 before losing the series finale 4-1.