2016 NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – No. 4
LCSC No 2. CI RV
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Georgia Gwinnett garners the No. 1 ranking for a second-consecutive week in the NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll, the national office announced Tuesday. The fifth regular-season installment will be released April 12.
Top 25 Highlights (historical information dates back to 2000)
• Georgia Gwinnett claimed all 18 first-place votes and 498 total points en route to its third No. 1 ranking in program history.
• The Grizzlies (38-1) carry a 13-game winning streak into the week, including a three-game sweep of Texas A&M-Texarkana over the weekend.
• Georgia Gwinnett’s 38 victories is best in the NAIA this season. The club also tops the charts in stolen bases (187) and strikeouts (351), while ranking among the top 10 nationally in 21 additional categories.
• Georgia Gwinnett is led by the trio of Zac Rinehardt, Trey Haygood and Josh Merrigan. All three boast at least 50 hits and a better than .400 batting average in 105-plus at-bats on the year. Rinehardt and Merrigan are tied for the team lead with 43 RBI each.
• Defending World Series champion Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) checks in at No. 2 for the fourth-straight poll. The Warriors, who swept NAIA West Group rival Oregon Tech over the weekend, have won five-straight.
• Lewis-Clark State, the preseason No. 1 team, owns an NAIA record 56 all-time top mentions and the association’s longest active streak in the Top 25 at 151-consecutive mentions.
• Three teams have held the No. 1 ranking this season: Faulkner (Ala.), Lewis-Clark State and Georgia Gwinnett.
• Rounding out the top five are No. 3 Bellevue (Neb.), No. 4 Faulkner and No. 5 USC Beaufort (S.C.). The Sand Sharks have won 11 of their last 13 games to crack the top five for the first time this season.
• No. 9 Missouri Baptist, which jumped three spots from last edition, is the only new team in the top 10 this week. The Spartans have won 18-straight en route to a 29-6 record and 14-1 mark in the American Midwest Conference. Missouri Baptist puts its streak on the line Tuesday in a mid-week, non-conference game at Missouri Valley.
• No. 15 Bryan (Tenn.), winners of 14 of its last 16, jumped five spots this edition to highlight the positive movement. The Lions only losses during the stretch came against No. 8 Tennessee Wesleyan on March 25 and 26.
• The most notable negative movement in the edition came from Lindsey Wilson (Ky.), which fell 14 spots from No. 10 to No. 24. The Blue Raiders hit a rough patch of late, losing four of its last five including a three-game series sweep against Mid-South Conference rival Campbellsville (Ky.).
• Fueled by the strong weekend against Lindsey Wilson, No. 21 Campbellsville is the edition’s lone newcomer. The Tigers were last ranked in the 2016 Preseason Poll (No. 19).
• Thirty-six teams have been ranked in 2016.
• The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference, Southern States Athletic Conference and The Sun Conference lead all leagues with three teams represented each. In total, nine different conferences have at least two schools on the list.
• Outside of Lewis-Clark State, 10 other teams have been ranked No. 1 in at least two polls: Oklahoma City (32), former member Lubbock Christian (Texas) (13), former member Embry-Riddle (Fla.) (11), Faulkner (10), LSU Shreveport (La.) (6), former member Lee (Tenn.) (6), Cumberland (6), Georgia Gwinnett (3) and Tennessee Wesleyan (2).
Poll Methodology
• The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences and the Association of Independent Institutions.
• The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each voter ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place and so on through the list.
• The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low ratings) is removed and the team’s ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appears on.
• Teams that receive only one point in the ballot are not considered “receiving votes”
• For the complete Top 25 calendar, click here.
2016 NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – No. 4 (April 5)
| RANK |
PRVS^ |
SCHOOL (1ST PLACE VOTES) |
RECORD |
TOTAL POINTS |
| 1 |
1 |
Georgia Gwinnett (18) |
38-1 |
498 |
| 2 |
2 |
Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) |
30-5 |
481 |
| 3 |
4 |
Bellevue (Neb.) |
27-5 |
458 |
| 4 |
3 |
Faulkner (Ala.) |
30-9 |
446 |
| 5 |
6 |
USC Beaufort (S.C.) |
31-5 |
429 |
| 6 |
5 |
Auburn Montgomery (Ala.) |
29-9 |
418 |
| 7 |
7 |
Westmont (Calif.) |
27-7 |
407 |
| 8 |
9 |
Tennessee Wesleyan |
25-9 |
374 |
| 9 |
12 |
Missouri Baptist |
29-6 |
373 |
| 10 |
8 |
Jamestown (N.D.) |
34-2 |
372 |
| 11 |
11 |
Tabor (Kan.) |
28-11 |
312 |
| 12 |
13 |
Oklahoma City |
28-11 |
295 |
| 13 |
15 |
Vanguard (Calif.) |
26-9-1 |
293 |
| 14 |
17 |
Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.) |
27-9 |
275 |
| 15 |
20 |
Bryan (Tenn.) |
28-9 |
271 |
| 16 |
14 |
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.) |
24-7 |
267 |
| 17 |
18 |
Middle Georgia State |
29-11 |
260 |
| 18 |
16 |
York (Neb.) |
26-9 |
235 |
| 19 |
19 |
Keiser (Fla.) |
27-11 |
220 |
| 20 |
22 |
Davenport (Mich.) |
22-7 |
189 |
| 21 |
RV |
Campbellsville (Ky.) |
22-11 |
162 |
| 22 |
25 |
Wayland Baptist (Texas) |
32-9 |
154 |
| 23 |
21 |
Sterling (Kan.) |
26-11 |
135 |
| 24 |
10 |
Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) |
26-14 |
127 |
| 25 |
24 |
St. Thomas (Fla.) |
25-13 |
98 |
Dropped from Top 25: Indiana Tech (No. 23)
Others receiving votes: Morningside (Iowa) 64; Indiana Tech 63; William Carey (Miss.) 61; Science & Arts (Okla.) 61; The Master’s (Calif.) 24; College of Idaho 22; Olivet Nazarene (Ill.) 15; Central Baptist (Ark.) 14; IU Southeast (Ind.) 14; Mobile (Ala.) 13; Oklahoma Wesleyan 8; Southwestern Christian (Okla.) 5; LSU Shreveport (La.) 5.
^From the 2016 NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – No. 3 (March 29)