For now, Wayne Riser and the Mary Washington Eagles baseball team are in a holding pattern — waiting to see if they will receive an invitation to the NCAA Division III national tournament.

Riser coached baseball for 20 years at Shepherd before moving on to Fredericksburg, Virginia and UMW for the 2013 season.

After going on a 14-game winning tear near the end of now-completed regular season, Mary Washington was able to finish third in the Capital Athletic Conference. Finishing third might seem a little mundane for a team that had a 14-game win streak, but regular-season champion Frostburg lost only three games all season was ranked third in the country and second-place Salisbury lost only twice all season and both of those setbacks were to Frostburg. The Seagulls were ranked fourth nationally.

With its 25-5 regular-season record, Mary Washington was ranked 24th nationally.

In the just-completed conference tournament, Frostburg sailed through the event with four straight wins and has a 31-3 overall record. Mary Washington defeated Marymount (Virginia) in its first game of the tournament and then got past Salisbury, 5-4, in its next game. Facing equally unbeaten Frostburg in the next round, Riser’s Eagles lost a 7-2 decision and fell into the loser’s bracket. Salisbury stopped the Eagles, 9-6, in that elimination game before losing to host Frostburg in the tournament finale.

Frostburg’s tournament championship gives it an automatic bid to the Division III national tournament.

Both Mary Washington and Salisbury await the selection committee’s bids and hope to be playing again next month in the national tournament.