Two local teams go after automatic bids to the NCAA tournament this week and that means you have the opportunity to see great lacrosse games Wednesday night at either Towson or UMBC.

The second-seeded Tigers will face Drexel at 7:30 p.m. at Johnny Unitas Stadium in the Colonial Athletic Conference semifinal while the top-seeded Retrievers will take on Binghamton in the America East Conference semifinal at UMBC at the same time.

The winner of the Towson-Drexel semifinal will advance to play the winner of the Hofstra-Villanova semifinal in the CAA championship game Saturday at the highest remaining seed. If Towson wins its semifinal, it would host Villanova or travel to Hofstra for the title game, depending on the outcome of the other semifinal.

UMBC will host the conference championship game on Saturday if they prevail Wednesday night.

Towson needs to win two straight to earn an NCAA tournament bid. After watching them against Johns Hopkins last week, there is no doubt that they can do that if they play well.

UMBC has likely already locked up an NCAA tournament spot. I suppose if they lost to Binghamton in the semis they might be on the wrong side of the bubble, but with a semifinal win and a loss on Saturday, I still think they are in, along with the conference tournament winner.

UMBC beat Maryland on March 14 and should edge out the Terps for the last at-large bid, even if they lose in the conference final. The Terps should be rooting for UMBC to run the AEC table like their season depends on it, because it probably does.