MILWAUKEE - The UWM baseball team will travel to South Bend, Ind., to open NCAA Tournament play against Notre Dame Friday at 4 p.m.

The Panthers (39-16) are the fourth seed at the four-team regional that also includes Florida International and California-Santa Barbara. The Golden Panthers (40-18) and Gauchos (39-15) will meet in the other first round game Friday. Double elimination play continues through Sunday.

UWM won the regular season Midwestern Collegiate Conference championship, then won four straight games this weekend to claim the MCC Tournament title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

This is the second tournament appearance for the Panthers, who went 1-2 in the 1999 NCAA Tournament. In that appearance, UWM opened the tournament with a win over top-ranked Rice before being eliminated.

UWM and Notre Dame last met in 2000, with the Panthers winning, 14-3. UWM is 3-8 all-time against Notre Dame.

The Fighting Irish (46-11-1) spent some of this season as the number one team in the country, but did not receive one of the eight top national seeds. This weekend, Notre Dame was eliminated from the Big East Tournament by Virginia Tech.