Lewis-Clark State Unanimous Pick to Win NAIA West Baseball Crown
UBC 2nd, CU 3rd
LA GRANDE, Ore. – World Series host Lewis-Clark State College has been voted the top team in the NAIA West Baseball Grouping the Conference office announced.
The Warriors earned all eight first place votes and 64 points through voting conducted by the NAIA West coaches. The University of British Columbia was voted second with 52 points, followed by defending NAIA West champs Concordia (41). The Cavaliers defeated Menlo last year in dramatic fashion with a walk-of single in the 10
th inning. Menlo was picked fourth (39) followed by The College of Idaho (37), Corban (30), Oregon Tech (15) and Simpson (8).
The NAIA West is comprised of four Cascade Collegiate Conference programs, two from the Cal Pac Conference, one from the GSAC Conference, one NAIA independent, and one member of the Frontier Conference. Opening day for NAIA West games is March 7th.
New to the West Grouping is La Sierra University located in Riverside California. The Golden Eagles will not participate in the West Grouping regular season schedule but could advance to the post season tournament based on ranking criteria at end of the season.
The top five teams will advance to the NAIA West postseason tournament in May to determine the grouping’s automatic bid to the NAIA Championships. (Lewis-Clark State is excluded from the grouping’s postseason tournament since it already has an automatic bid to the World Series as the tournament host).
The No. 1 seed will host the postseason tournament, which is slated for May 2-5.
2014 West Grouping Coaches’ Poll
|
Institution |
Pts |
2013 WG |
2013 Overall |
|
1. Lewis-Clark State (8) |
64 |
22-6 |
45-15 |
|
2. Univ. of British Columbia |
52 |
17-11 |
21-23 |
|
3. Concordia |
41 |
15-13 |
30-27 |
|
4. Menlo |
39 |
20-8 |
34-18 |
|
5. College of Idaho |
37 |
11-17 |
20-24 |
|
6.Corban |
30 |
14-14 |
30-24 |
|
7.Oregon Tech |
15 |
11-17 |
20-36 |
|
8. Simpson |
8 |
2-26 |
4-41 |
First place votes in parentheses