2015 NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – Final
Oklahoma City closes the regular season ranked atop the poll
By Alan Grosbach, Manager of Communications and Sports Information
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Oklahoma City closes the regular-season ranked No. 1 in the 2015
NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Friday. The Stars, who
are listed at No. 1 for the 32nd time since 2000, received 15 first-place votes and 584
points en route to the top spot.
The 45 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round qualifiers will be announced
at 3 p.m. CDT today. The brackets for the nine Opening Round host sites will be revealed
via a video show at 6 p.m. on www.NAIANetwork.com.
Oklahoma City, which is the fifth different team
to be listed atop the poll this season, was last
ranked No. 1 on April 30, 2013. The Stars
finished the year with a 43-11 overall record and
won its 10th Sooner Athletic Conference (SAC)
tournament crown to earn an automatic berth
into the national championship Opening Round.
Connor Lynch’s grand slam in the top of the
ninth against Oklahoma Baptist proved the
difference in the 7-5 title game win on May 4.
The rest of the top five is comprised of No. 2 Oklahoma Baptist (557 points), No. 3
Tennessee Wesleyan (six first-place votes and 539 points), No. 4 Georgia Gwinnett (531
points) and No. 5 Tabor (Kan.) (508 points).
Additionally, Tennessee Wesleyan and Tabor highlight the positive movement within the
poll this week, as both programs jumped four places. Each team won their respective
conference’s regular-season and tournament title, leading to an automatic berth into the
championship field.
No. 11 Northwood (Fla.), which slid seven spots, suffered the farthest drop this week
after going 0-2 in The Sun Conference tournament. The Seahawks close the regularseason 39-12, but have struggled of late dropping five of their last seven games.
No. 25 York (Neb.) is the only newcomer this week. The Panthers were last ranked in the
2014 Preseason Poll (Nov. 12, 2013).
The Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference, Golden State Athletic Conference and The
Sun Conference lead all leagues with three teams represented.