Mid-May without baseball is almost unheard of at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

For the 15th time in the last 17 years, the Red Hawks earned a berth in the NCAA Division III tournament when they won the Liberty League championship over the weekend in Rochester.

RPI (33-10), ranked 20th in the nation, will be the third seed in an eight-team, double-elimination

regional. The Red Hawks will take on sixth-seeded Farmingdale (23-13) at Falcon Park in Auburn Wednesday at 4:30 p.m..

For RPI head coach Karl Steffen, a trip to the NCAAs is a return to the natural order of things. RPI secured its first NCAA tourn­ament bid in 1990, and then made 13 straight appearances from 1992 through 2004. RPI also earned an NCAA bid in 2006, but the Red Hawks were surprisingly left out of the field a year ago, despite a 29-10 record.

“We were very disappointed last year,” said Steffen. “We came into the Liberty League tournament a year ago with a 28-8 record, and we won one game and lost two. We were sure that we were going back to the NCAAs, but they decided not to take another team from our league. New York schools are not getting as many teams in the regionals as they used to, and I’m not sure why.”

That snub motivated this year’s team.

“When we didn’t get the bid last year, we talked about what it took to get back to the next level. The guys worked hard with that in mind. We’d like to get back to the national championships, if we can. That’s our ultimate goal.”

RPI has appeared in two Div­ision III World Series, but in order to make it a third, the Red Hawks must utilize their pitching depth.

“In the old days, it was only a four-team regional. Now, it’s eight. That means pitching depth is even more critical,” said Steffen, a former standout pitcher at Ithaca College. “We think we’ve got a good combination. We’ve got good defense, we put runs on the board and I also think our pitching is pretty solid, from the No. 1 guy to the No. 9 guy.”

The staff ace is senior left-hander Joe Zongol, from Flower Mount, Texas. Zongol was the Liberty League Pitcher of the Year after posting a 9-1 record with a 1.62 earned run average. He held opponents to a .205 batting average, and compiled six complete games, including one shutout.

“Joe has a curve, a changeup and a good fastball with a lot of life in it. He can throw it in the upper- 80s, and he’s very effective,” said Steffen.

“Most of my pitchers have a good fastball. We tend to have both power pitchers and control pitchers on this staff. For the most part, our guys are around the plate. The only time we run into problems are the days when guys aren’t throwing strikes, but overall, I feel pretty confident sending out any one of our guys at any time.”

Tim Klein (5-2, 3.24 ERA) is the No. 2 man in the rotation.

“He throws his fastball in the mid-80s, and has great location,” said Steffan.

Other starters include Ken Carroll (5-1, 2.53), lefty Andy Opperman (3-1, 4.70), Shenendehowa’s Andrew Mondo (4-1, 5.05) and John Dreimiller (2-2, 6.19).

Andrew Novick (3-2, 3.13, two saves) is the closer, but other relievers include Mike Cieszko (0-0, 1.80) and Colonie’s Tyler Agneta (2-0, 5.74).

“Novick has done most of the late relieving for us, but this Cieszko is a freshman from California,” said Steffen. “He has a very live arm with a sharp slider. In his last two innings during the Liberty League tournament championship game, he dominated St. Lawrence with six quick outs. He’s very capable.”

Offensively, the Red Hawks are batting .359 and are outscoring opponents, 401-206.

“We don’t have that much power [29 home runs], but we have a lot of doubles [135],” said Steffen. “We came out swinging early in the spring in our first 20 games. We went into a little funk after that, but we picked it up again during the Liberty League tournament. We do have some guys who can hit it out of the park occasionally, but we’re more of a line-drive type of team.”

Senior first baseman Ken Carroll tops the team with a .455 batting average. His 50 hits include 12 doubles and four homers. Right fielder Dan Valentine (.441), who has a school-record 22 doubles and 51 RBI, and Catholic Central grad­uate Sean Wilkes (.395, 32 RBI), are other big hitters.

RPI also can count on middle infielder Dan Stroud (.387), outfielder/first baseman Camden Mamigonian (.380, seven homers, 54 RBI), shortstop Matt Muscatiello of Ichabod Crane (.362, 30 RBI) and catcher Patrick Reardon (.361, 44 RBI) in a loaded lineup.

“Our history is that we seem to go the College World Series every six years,” said Steffen. “The last time was 2002, so we think we’re destined to go again.”