NAIA West Grouping Baseball Championships Field Announced
LA GRANDE, Ore. – Five teams, led by No. 1 seed University of British Columbia, have battled their way into the 2014 NAIA West Grouping Baseball Championships the conference office announced today.
The Thunderbirds (20-8 WG, 29-11) will host the championships in Vancouver, B.C. May 2-5. It took tiebreakers to determine seeds 2-4 with Concordia University (16-12 WG, 26-18) earning the No. 2 seed. Corban University (16-12 WG, 27-22) enters the tournament as the No. 3 seed while The College of Idaho (16-12 WG, 25-19) fills the No. 4 seed. Rounding out the field with the No.5 seed is Menlo College (13-15, 26-24).
With Corban, Concordia and The College of Idaho all finishing league play with 16-12 records, the tiebreaker compared head to head records against the three tied teams. Concordia was 5-3 after splitting with Corban and taking three of four games from C of I, Corban was 4-4 after splitting with both Concordia and C of I, while The College of Idaho was 3-5 after splitting with Corban and losing three of four to Concordia.
The tournament winner will earn an 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 Warriors finished the West Grouping season with a 24-4 record and are 36-5 overall.
The Championships are presented by U.S.Bank.
Tournament Schedule
May 2
Game 1: COI vs. Menlo
Game 2: CRB vs. CU
Game 3: Game 1 Winner vs. UBC
May 3
Game 4: Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser
Game 5: Game 2 Winner vs. Game 3 Winner
Game 6: Game 3 Loser vs. Game 4 Winner
May 4
Game 7: Game 5 Loser vs. Game 6 Winner
Game 8: Game 5 Winner vs. Game 7 Winner
May 5
Game 9: Game 8 Winner vs. Game 8 Loser (if necessary)