By John McGraw for D3baseball.com

Previews: || New England || New York || Mid-Atlantic || South || Mideast || Central || Midwest || West ||

The Mid-Atlantic preview is the last of our eight regional previews. Follow D3baseball.com on Twitter for updated throughout the season.

The road to Appleton in the Mid-Atlantic region leads through New Jersey. It has been announced that Kean will host the Trenton regional as part of the NCAA Division III playoffs at Mercer County Waterfront Park, home of a Double-A Trenton Thunder. The last two NCAA tournaments have featured New Jersey-contested regionals in Lakewood (2009) and Newark (2008).

While the Mid-Atlantic region on a whole features 57 teams and seven automatic bid leagues, Kean has won the last three regional championships and made four-straight NCAA appearances under head coach Neil Ioverio. The 2007 national champions are poised for another run to Wisconsin with a highly potent offense that includes eight returning starters. The road to the regionals for the Cougars however is a tough one in the highly competitive NJAC where they'll face a stiff challenge from William Paterson as well as TCNJ and Montclair State. Paterson was one win away from the NCAA tournament last year and knocked Kean from the conference tournament before succumbing to TCNJ.

Kean is the overall favorite but don't look past Keystone. While the Cougars are ranked third in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25, the Giants are tabbed 11th. Keystone stomped its' foot into the collective national scene last year with 40-win season and an appearance in the Mid-Atlantic region title game with Kean. Looking past the top contenders, Alvernia is the sleeper pick to advance to Wisconsin. The Crusaders have everyone back from last year's NCAA tournament team. Penn State-Behrend and Manhattanville should join the others in Trenton, N.J., along with Johns Hopkins. The 2008 national runners-up should be able to slug their way to New Jersey but will need to replace several key arms on the mound.

New Faces:

Justin Cook, Baptist Bible: The 2009 Baptist Bible grad takes over a Crusaders program that has only known one coach, the now resigned Don Sintic, since its inception in 2005. Cook played baseball and basketball at the Clarks Summit, Pa., school; he topped the team in earned run average during the 2006 campaign and was also part of an NCAA playoff basketball team in 2008. It is believed that Cook is one of the youngest head baseball coaches in the country.