Division II Top 25: May 6

Top ranked Tampa’s remarkable season continued as the Spartans set a new win percentage record when they swept a doubleheader from Florida Tech on Sunday. With the wins Head Coach Joe Urso’s team earned their 47th victory of the year with only a pair of losses to finish the regular season at an incredible .959 winning percentage. The final win was punctuated by a phenomenal performance by Tampa senior Jacob Tillotson, who not only played all nine positions in the finale, but also had a pair of hits and RBI and also struck out the side in the final inning to close the game. Tampa will unquestionably be announced as the top seed and host the South Regional when the selections are revealed Sunday night.

A likely opponent at some time in the South Regional will be fourth-ranked Delta State who also is finishing their season with an exclamation point. After earning three wins to open the Gulf South Conference Baseball Tournament, the Statesmen played themselves into the championship game and will be playing for their 13th GSC title. A win would not only give DSU a well-earned dog-pile celebration, but also the second seed in the ultra-competitive regional.

The Great American Conference has three teams in the mix, each of whom are hoping to advance deep in their tournament to make sure they don’t get left out when the Central Region invites are handed out.

Arkansas Tech was in the pole position of the official regional rankings last week, but the Wonder Boys had their 22-game win streak snapped in the opening round of the tournament and were eliminated by a resurgent Southern Arkansas club Monday. Meanwhile Arkansas-Monticello, a school who went 0-37 just six years ago, has played themselves into the GAC title game for the second year in a row. No matter the outcome of the final tournament game, the Boll Weevils should receive recognition for an amazing season, and Head Coach John Harvey should clear some space on his wall for a heap of coaching awards for the season UAM has put together.

Four teams dropped out of the rankings, which is never good news, especially this time of the season. St. Cloud State looked like a lock for the extended postseason a few weeks ago, but the Huskies may now need to take the NSIC Tournament title if they are going to continue playing. Florida Southern held the last spot in the rankings last week, but lost their final series to put their postseason hopes in limbo as well. Texas A&M Kingsville and Seton Hill also fell out of the top 25, but both clubs should still hear their names announced Sunday nonetheless.

Joining the rankings are Millersville, Augustana, Franklin Pierce and Shepherd. The Marauders have been playing good ball all season and were the runner-ups in the PSAC Tournament. Augustana essentially took conference-mate’s SCSU’s spot by virtue of a double-header sweep. Franklin Pierce edged Southern New Hampshire for a second team from the East Region in the rankings and Shepherd gets the final spot after winning the new Mountain East Conference regular season.