NAIA Top 25 and Recap for May 12th

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Results of the NAIA Coaches’ Poll for May 12, 2010, and Boyd Nation’s Iterative Strength Rating. This is the final poll for the 2010 season, and will be used for seeding the NAIA Opening Round tournaments, which start May 18. (poll below)

#1 Lewis-Clark State defeated Division III George Fox 7-3, and defeated Division I Seattle U. Twice, 8-7 and 5-3. The game against George Fox was tied in the seventh inning, and the Warriors needed an RBI single by Jack Eccles and a sacrifice fly by Kawika Emsley-Pai to get the first win against Seattle U. Hentry Buenrostro got a win in this game, and a save in the second game. Arlo Evasick went 7 2/3 innings for the Redhawks in the second game. He held the Warriors to one run during the first seven innings, but gave up a three-run home run by DH Pat Murray with two out in the eighth to get the loss. The three runs were unearned, and the home run was only the fourth hit given up by Evasick.

The regular season is over for the Warriors, and they finished it with a 16-game winning streak. A game scheduled at Gonzaga next week was cancelled, and the Redhawks were the only Division I team the Warriors played this year. The next game for the Warriors will be at the NAIA Baseball National Championship, which starts May 28.

#2 Cumberland finished the regular season with a three-game sweep of Mid-Continent, 7-3, 12-0, and 21-7. Shawn Schaefer got his 11^th win of the season in the first one. Aaron Wilkerson and Keith Kirby combined for the shutout in the second game, which was shortened to five innings by the mercy rule. The Bulldogs then defeated Freed-Hardeman 11-6 in the first round of the TranSouth Conference tournament. They defeated Bethel (TN) 9-0 in the second round; Wilkerson got the complete-game shutout, struck out 11. In the third round, they defeated #18 Union U. (TN) 14-5, and Schaefer got his 12^th win of the season. The win was the Bulldogs’ 20^th straight. They will play Union U. again in the tournament final on May 13.

Lewis-Clark State received all 24 first-place votes.

#3 Cal Baptist will play #11 Fresno Pacific for the Golden State Athletic Conference championship on May 13. The Lancers defeated Concordia-Irvine 5-4, Vanguard 26-10 (no, that isn’t a football score), and #17 Point Loma Nazarene 16-6 to get to the final. C Sharif Othman has done major offensive damage for the Lancers, with nine hits (a .640 average) and eight RBI in the tournament. The Lancers should be hosting an NAIA Opening Round tournament.

#4 Lee doesn’t play again until the NAIA Opening Round. They will be hosting one of the Opening Round tournaments.

#5 Lubbock Christian finished their regular season with two lop-sided wins against Wayland Baptist, and are now in the final of the Sooner Athletic Conference tournament against #6 Oklahoma City. The Chaparrals got to the final by defeating Rogers State 12-8, Wayland Baptist 8-3, and Oklahoma City 10-9. In the Rogers State game, the Chaparrals scored five runs in the ninth inning, including Richard Bohlken’s 23^rd home run of the season, and a three-run home run by David Cruz. The Chaparrals should be hosting an NAIA Opening Round tournament.

#6 Oklahoma City started the Sooner Athletic Conference with a 15-13 win over Northwestern Oklahoma State, and a 13-4 win over Southern Nazarene. After the loss to Lubbock Christian, they defeated Northwestern Oklahoma State again (19-6 this time) to stay in the tournament. The Stars may host an NAIA Opening Round tournament.

#7 British Columbia switched left-hander Mark Hardy from a starter to a closer late in the season, but he started and went the distance in the last game of the season against #15 College of Idaho to get the win the Thunderbirds needed to host the NAIA West tournament. Hardy got another start against the Coyotes in the second round of the NAIA West tournament, and came up big again. He went seven innings, allowed only one run on eight hits and struck out six. The Thunderbirds also got three double plays, and even though they were out-hit 9-6, the Birds came out with a 3-1 win. The Coyotes were upset in the next game by Oregon Tech, due mainly to a brilliant pitching performance by Shea Bedortha. That set up an easy 11-3 win for the Thunderbirds over the Hustlin’ Owls in the tournament final, but the crowd at Nat Bailey Stadium got to see a brilliant double play in the fifth inning executed by 2B Alex White (pictured) to SS Sammie Starr to 1B Andrew Firth. This was the second straight NAIA West title for the Thunderbirds.

#8 Embry-Riddle got a 3-1 loss to Saint Thomas in the Sun Conference tournament, but got a 3-0 win against Savannah College of Art and Design to get to the tournament final, and got 6-2 and 13-1 wins against Saint Thomas to win the championship. Jonathan Kountis went the distance in the shutout against SCAD, allowed three hits, struck out nine. Justin Zinkovich recorded a shutout against Warner earlier in the tournament.

#9 LSU-Shreveport won the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference tournament, but they had to go through the losers’ beacket to do it because of a 9-7 loss to William Carey. #14 Belhaven was the top seed in the tournament, but they were upset in the first round by Loyola-New Orleans, and taken out of the tournament by the Pilots. The Pilots defeated Loyola twice in the tournament final, 17-1 and 10-3.

#10 Madonna has a win and a loss against Indiana Tech in the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference tournament. These two teams will play one more game on May 13 to decide the conference championship.