Closed School's Epic Division III College World Series Run to Become Documentary

Birmingham-Southern's Cinderella story is coming to the big screen.
Jun 13, 2015; Omaha, NE, USA; General view of logo before the 2015 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park.
Jun 13, 2015; Omaha, NE, USA; General view of logo before the 2015 College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park. / Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

If you followed along with Birmingham-Southern College's run to the Division III College World Series, you probably had the thought at one time or another that the Panthers' heroics were the stuff of movies.

Fortunately, the film industry agrees with you.

A documentary film crew followed Birmingham-Southern's baseball team around for the last two weeks of the school's existence, Blue Eyes Entertainment executive producer Jason Sciavicco told Kennington Smith III of The Athletic Wednesday. Per Sciavicco, the company will put together a feature length-documentary "as soon as possible."

"The story was so pure," Sciavicco said. "Here’s a group of kids playing D-III baseball, and their school is closing. They were 13-10 when they found out their school was closing (in March). How easy would it have been to mail it in? Instead, they finished the season 25-4 and went on a run."

The final push landed the Panthers in the Division III College World Series, which began the day the century-old liberal arts school officially shut down. After losing 7-5 to Salve Regina in the first round, Birmingham-Southern rallied past Randolph-Macon 9-7 with a walk-off home run.

The Panthers fell 11-10 to Wisconsin-Whitewater in the second round on yet another walk-off home run, but their story appears destined to live on in baseball lore.


Published
Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .