Lewis-Clark State Voted Unanimous Pick To Win NAIA West Baseball Title
LA GRANDE, Ore. – For the second year in a row, Lewis-Clark State College has been voted the favorite in the NAIA West Baseball Grouping, the Conference office announced.
With all eight of the first place votes, Lewis-Clark State College earned the top spot with a total of 64 points. Defending champion, the University of British Columbia, took second place in the voting with 54 points followed by Concordia and Corban with 40 and 36 points respectively.
Finishing up the rankings are The College of Idaho (35 points) at fifth, Menlo (30) at sixth, Oregon Tech (17) at seventh and Simpson University (12) at eighth.
La Sierra University of Riverside Calif., is going in to its second season in the West Grouping and will continue to not participate in the regular season but would still have a chance to advance to the post season tournament based on the rankings at the end of the season.
The NAIA West is comprised of four Cascade Collegiate Conference programs, three from the Cal Pac Conference, one NAIA independent, and one member of the Frontier Conference.
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 receives an automatic bid to the World Series as the tournament host and therefore does not participate in the West Grouping’s tournament.
The No. 1 seed will host the postseason tournament, which is slated for May 1-4.
2015 West Grouping Coaches' Poll
|
Institution |
Pts |
2014 WG |
2014 Overall |
|
1. Lewis-Clark State (8) |
64 |
24-4 |
45-15 |
|
2. Univ. of British Columbia |
54 |
20-8 |
35-13 |
|
3. Concordia |
40 |
16-12 |
29-20 |
|
4. Corban |
36 |
16-12 |
29-26 |
|
5. College of Idaho |
35 |
16-12 |
25-22 |
|
6. Menlo |
30 |
13-15 |
29-27 |
|
7.Oregon Tech |
17 |
6-22 |
11-37 |
|
8. Simpson |
12 |
1-27 |
1-43 |
La Sierra - 0-0 2-36
First place votes in parentheses