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College  | Rankings  | 5/19/2021

D-II, NAIA, D-III rankings: May 19

Nick Herfordt     
Photo: Ed Pfluger (Point Park Athtletics)
The small school division analysis is extremely heavy on the NAIA as the level started their national postseason opening round on Monday. While action on their diamonds has been bountiful as of late, it has been relatively quiet on D-II and D-III diamonds. 

The final NCAA D-II and D-III conference tournaments games will be played this week with their respective regional championships slated to begin May 27/28. A breakdown of both levels with predictions to advance to the final eight will be posted next week.




D-II

There wasn’t much action last week at the D-II level with 10 of the Top 25 teams having the week off. For those teams that did play they took care of business for the most part, aside from West Texas and North Georgia, who were both unmercifully beaten in their conference tournaments. Charleston also took an earlier-than-anticipated exit from their conference finale.   

Big movers this week were Seton Hill, who has gone a remarkable 34-4 and will play for the PSAC title against Bloomsburg, and Lindenwood, who rallied late to win the GLVC title over Illinois-Springfield. 

A breakdown of the D-II regions with picks to advance to Cary will be posted next week. 

Rank Prev School State Record Last Week
1 1 Colorado Mesa Mavericks CO 37-3 4-0
2 2 Central Missouri Mules MO 36-6 2-0
3 4 Angelo State Rams TX 36-7 2-1
4 6 Augustana Vikings SD 33-9 2-0
5 5 North Greenville Crusaders SC 33-11 0-0
6 15 Seton Hill Griffins PA 34-4 3-0
7 7 West Florida Argos FL 32-8 0-0
8 3 West Texas A&M Buffs TX 32-7 2-2
9 9 Tampa Spartans FL 16-4 0-0
10 8 Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars IL 37-6 3-1
11 10 Catawba Indians NC 32-9 0-0
12 11 Mount Olive Trojans NC 35-10 0-0
13 12 Azusa Pacific Cougars CA 29-8 0-0
14 13 Minnesota State Mavericks MN 34-7 2-0
15 17 Columbus St. Cougars GA 29-14 2-0
16 14 Lee Flames TN 34-9 0-1
17 16 Wingate Bulldogs NC 30-12 0-0
18 18 Metro State Roadrunners CO 32-8 0-0
19 20 Millersville Marauders PA 27-12 1-1
20 NR Lindenwood Lions MO 33-7 4-0
21 21 UNC Pembroke Braves NC 29-13 0-0
22 19 North Georgia Nighthawks GA 30-15 0-2
23 22 Southern Arkansas Muleriders AR 27-14 0-1
24 24 Southern New Hampshire Penmen NH 21-6 2-1
25 25 Newberry Wolves SC 25-15 0-0


NAIA

The 2021 NAIA Opening Round started on Monday, May 17 at nine sites across the nation. The winners of each of the five team brackets, along with host Lewis-Clark State College, will earn an invite to Lewiston, Idaho to compete for the 2021 NAIA World Series title. Following is a breakdown of each of the five regions with a pick to advance to the final 10 teams that will play for the national title.

The following predictions were made Sunday, May 16 before the tournaments began.

Bellevue Bracket

Science & Arts (Okla.), Rank 6
MidAmerica Nazarene (Kan.), Rank: Not ranked
Concordia (Neb.), Rank 19
Bellevue (Neb.), Rank: Not ranked
Saint Xavier (Ill.), Rank: Not ranked

The Drovers started the season as the No. 2 team in the Perfect Game preseason rankings, never fell out of the top-eight and are currently positioned sixth overall, and are a strong favorite to win this region. Concordia is the only other member of the five that is currently in the rankings. They’d advanced to No. 19 following their capture of the Great Plains Athletic Conference’s regular season and conference titles. 

What could make this region interesting is the weather forecast for the Omaha area. It is expected to be a wet week with not just rain, but constant thunderstorms in the region. This region features some of NAIA’s top pitchers in USAO’s Colton Williams and Richardo Velez, MidAmerica Nazarene’s Jhon Vargas and Concordia’s Jake Fosgett, who have struck out a combined 429 batters in only 294 innings. Should any of that quartet take to the mound and then get iced during a weather delay, it could adversely affect their performance going forward. 

While their offense is solid, the starting pitching will ultimately determine if the Drovers return to Lewison. Their three starting pitchers of Williams, Velez and Jean Muntanger (who is much, much better than his 5.52 ERA earned this season) have thrown 64 percent of the team's total innings this season so they’d like to keep them on the mound and effective as long as possible. That isn’t to say there should be much apprehension for Head Coach Mike Ross to use his bullpen. They too have some very capable arms, including Drew Shaver, who has appeared in 20 games and struck out 67 batters in 45 innings while only allowing 28 hits.

Weather issues or not, USAO should advance to Lewiston out of this bracket.

Update: Top seeded USAO has been eliminated. The Drovers were bested by Bellevue in their first game and eliminated Tuesday by MidAmerica Nazarene. Not only did the Bruins defeat USAO, but they handed ace pitcher Colton Williams his first loss of his NAIA career. Williams will leave USAO with an overall 33-1 record. Bellevue needs one more win to return to Lewiston.


Kingsport Bracket

Tennessee Wesleyan, Rank: 1
IU Southeast, Rank: 8
Warner (Fla.), Rank: Not ranked
Northwestern Ohio, Rank: Not ranked
Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio), Rank: Not ranked
 
No reason to draw this out with unnecessary analysis. Tennessee Wesleyan, who has spent the entire season as the No. 1 team in the Perfect Game NAIA rankings, should have no problem winning this quintet of teams. 

IU Southeast, who lost three games to the Bulldogs in early February (two of which in a very lopsided fashion), are a much better team than they were at the start of the year, but the Bulldogs are just as good now as they were then, if not better.

Update: IU Southeast defeated Tennessee Wesleyan in the winner’s bracket with a walk-off home run by Marco Romero. The top-ranked Bulldogs will have to defeat Mt. Vernon Nazarene and the Grenadiers to advance to Lewiston.


Lakeland Bracket

Southeastern (Fla.), Rank: 3
Middle Georgia State, Rank: 24
Bryan (Tenn.), Rank: 17
USC Beaufort (S.C.), Rank: Not ranked
Fisher (Mass.), Rank: Not ranked
 
The Fire have been the No. 2 or No. 3 team in the Perfect Game rankings the entire season. With this talented team playing at home, where they are 32-2, there is no reason to think they won’t advance to Lewiston once again. 

Middle Georgia State and Bryan were both in the national top-10 rankings at one point during the season, but both have tailed off the second half of the spring. The Knights have gone 7-9 in their last 16 and the Lions finished their last 22 games going 13-8. 

USCB has two wins over SEU this season, but also four losses, which include a combined 25-5 drubbing in the last two games of the Sun Conference tournament. 

Update: No surprises so far as the higher-ranked seed has one each of the six games. Southeastern needs one more win to return to Lewiston.

Marion Bracket

Oklahoma Wesleyan, Rank: 11
Indiana Wesleyan, Rank: 21
Columbia (Mo.), Rank: 22
Olivet Nazarene (Ill.), Rank: Not ranked
Indiana Tech, Rank: Not ranked
 
Overall this is the NAIA’s most balanced opening round bracket with no clear-cut favorite in the group. Regardless of who wins, it shouldn’t be a surprise. This bracket is especially interesting as the only team in the group which was ranked in the preseason is the fifth seed, Indiana Tech. 

Host Indiana Wesleyan suffered seven of their 12 losses to start the year when they advantageously faced Southeastern and Faulkner to start the season. Since then they went 43-6 and won the Crossroads League regular season and tournament titles. 

Oklahoma Wesleyan on the other hand started the season hot. The Eagles won 38 of their first 41 games. Those wins propelled them all the way up to the sixth position in the rankings before cooling down over the last couple of weeks. 

Columbia and Olivet Nazarene each finished first in their conference’s regular season standings. As did Indiana Tech, kinda of… Don’t get me started on that. 

With much trepidation I’m selecting the Wildcats to win. They have home field advantage which will give them the edge in this competitive group. 

No, nevermind. I’m picking OKWU. I really want to choose someone other than the top seed, but the Eagles simply have too much power. They’ve hit an NAIA-leading 133 home runs and scored and are also in the top ten in runs, hits and batting average. If the other teams had some stronger pitching I could be convinced OKWU isn’t the team to beat, but I have to go with the Eagles here. 

Update: Oklahoma Wesleyan will face the winner of Indiana Wesleyan and Indiana for the opportunity to advance. OKWU will have to be defeated twice.


Montgomery Bracket

Vanguard (Calif.), Rank: 13 
Faulkner (Ala.), Rank:  7
St. Thomas (Fla.), 25
Freed-Hardeman (Tenn.), Rank: Not ranked
Our Lady of the Lake (Texas), Rank: Not ranked
 
This is another difficult bracket to pick and the first in which I am not going to select the top seed. I’m choosing Faulkner to advance to Lewiston for what seems like the zillionth time in school history.

Top seeded Vanguard has been forced to play on the other side of the county, which can’t be beneficial. They’ve also gone an unimpressive 14-11 of their last 25 games which doesn’t scream of being Lewiston-bound. 

St. Thomas and Freed-Hardeman were both ranked in the top-five to start the season but have not lived up to their preseason prognostications. St. Thomas has a number of excellent wins this season over the ilk of highly-ranked Southeastern, Georgia Gwinnett and Keiser, but too many unanticipated curious losses to teams which they had no business being defeated by. FHU, who was the Perfect Game preseason favorite in 2019, needed a strong finish to end the year over .500. If either of one of these two win the region it would definitely be a surprise, but not a shock. 

Faulkner, with their pair of aces in Antonio Frias and July Sosa, are simply too good to pick against. That duo combined to strike out 184 batters in 133 innings while only allowing 88 hits this spring. A pair of pitchers like that should give them two quick wins to open the region. Offensively Faulkner hits well with pop and they are extremely aggressive on the basepaths. 

Update: Faulkner won their first two games by a single run and control the bracket. Vanguard and Freed-Hardeman will face off Wednesday with the winner needed to upset the Eagles twice.


New Orleans Bracket

Loyola (La.), Rank: 15
Keiser (Fla.), Rank: 23
Oklahoma City, Rank: 16
Benedictine (Kan.), Rank: Not ranked
Ottawa (Kan.), Rank: Not ranked

If a low seed is going to win a region I think this is the one where they’ll succeed. Benedictine earned their invite to the postseason in part by playing an aggressive schedule with high-caliber opponents. Ottawa earned wins over Columbia, McPherson and Oklahoma Wesleyan on their way to winning the KCAC Tournament. Both of these schools have shown they can compete with the best of the best. If either advances it would not be a jaw-dropping event. Nevertheless, I’m picking third-seeded Oklahoma City to win the region.

The Stars have not blown my socks off with their success this season. While they have wins over MidAmerica Nazarene, LSU-Shreveport and USAO, they also have suffered too many unOCU-like setbacks which makes me wonder which version of Stars team will arrive in New Orleans. I’m going to go with my gut in this one and think that the OCU club that crushed 107 home runs and finished in the top-five in slugging percentage and 10th in batting average will be the one to take to the field. Their team ERA is thick at 5.58, but talented enough to keep opposition at bay while the offense does its job.

Update: Currently Keiser tops the region with wins over Oklahoma City and Ottawa. Due to weather this bracket is a game behind with four teams still in contention. 

 
O’Fallon Bracket

Central Methodist (Mo.), Rank: 5
William Carey (Miss.), Rank: 12
Benedictine Mesa (Ariz.), Rank: 18
McPherson (Kan.), Rank: Not ranked
Doane (Neb.), Rank: Not ranked

This bracket is a tough one to pick with strong teams for three different regions being represented. The type of baseball being played in the West, Midwest and Southeast have their own je ne sais quoi which differentiates the three.  It’s the same sport, but the flavor of the game is just different. There is typically little overlap in the schedules so schools from these divisions don’t play each other often. 

I think William Carey is a great club and they are undeniably hot, having won their 13 games in a row. However, they struggled against the top teams in the regular season, going 1-8 against Faulkner, Loyola and Middle Georgia State. As such, I’m going to defer to Central Methodist or BenU as the winner.

After much consideration I’m picking the Eagles to advance. This choice is made heavily due to the arms of Nick Merkel and Mason Schwellenback. The duo had 2.00 and 2.14 ERAs, respectively, and both struck out well over a batter per inning.  Schwellenback is the NAIA MVP. Not only has he been remarkable on the mound, he also is second on the team in batting at .397 with 11 home runs and 101 total bases. The Eagles also have two other mashers in Sergio Macias and Logan Haring who will make keeping this team off the scoreboard difficult. 

Update: This bracket is also behind schedule with only two games having been played the first two days instead of three. Central Methodist and William Carey will play first thing Wednesday and the winner of that game will be the region frontrunner. 


Santa Barbara Bracket

Georgia Gwinnett, Rank: 4
Hope International (Calif.), Rank: 20
Westmont (Calif.), Rank: Not ranked
Saint Katherine (Calif.), Rank: Not ranked
Corban (Ore.), Rank: Not ranked

The Grizzlies got hosed by not only not getting to host a regional despite having one of the best (if not the best) facilities in the NAIA, but they were also shipped across the county to California to play their region. However, the Grizzlies are the top seed in a bracket in which only one other school is ranked – and not particularly highly ranked at that. 

Gwinnett has a 42-9 record this season and played a highly-competitive schedule which pitted them in 20 games against nine teams in the NAIA Opening Round: St. Thomas, Cumberlands, Reinhardt, Freed-Hardeman, Tennessee Wesleyan, Northwestern Ohio, Middle Georgia State and Fisher. GGC should have little difficulty earning another invite to Lewiston. If any other of the four teams should advance it would be the biggest surprise of the opening round.

Update: The host Hope International rallied to defeat Georgia Gwinnett in the winner’s bracket and remain undefeated. The Grizzlies will have to defeat Westmont to earn a rematch with the Royals and then must win twice to advance.


Williamsburg Bracket

Cumberlands (Ky.), Rank: 2
LSU Shreveport (La.), Rank: 10
Reinhardt (Ga.), Rank: Not ranked
Point Park (Pa.), Rank: Not ranked
Mayville State (N.D.), Rank: Not ranked

This bracket will come down to either Cumberlands or LSUS. 

Cumberlands is the second-ranked team in the nation and aside from their preseason position and the initial update, have been in the top-three all season long. Consequently the Patriots seem to be an easy choice to advance.  Despite that, there is something about the LSU Shreveport team which makes me think they could usurp their host to win the region.

LSUS was ranked sixth in the preseason and almost fell out of the rankings midseason – they spent two weeks at the end of March at the No. 25 position. The team had been besieged with complications due to COVID, weather, and injuries. However, since April 1 the Pilots have gone 28-3 to reclaim their spot in the top-10.

What makes selecting a winner between these two teams a bit difficult is that neither school has earned a win over a team that is currently ranked in over two months. Cumberlands last win over a team currently ranked in the Perfect Game Top 25 was March 8 against IU Southeast. LSUS’ was March 13 against Oklahoma City. Thus, they’ve both basically earned their rank and reputation with quantity of wins rather than quality. 

Looking at each team’s numbers, the edge definitely goes to the Patriots. They play in different conferences, but I’d state that the Mid-South and Red River are comparable. 

The Pats have a higher team batting average and slug significantly higher as well. The Pilots advantage is on the basepaths as they’ve stolen 170 bases on the season. The Cumberlands’ pitchers have a 3.31 ERA compared to the Pilots' overall of 4.81. Opposing teams are hitting .242 against the Cumberlands and have struck out 494 times in 397 1/3 innings compared to .253 and 429 Ks in 419 for the Pilots. 

I’m choosing the Cumberlands and their home field advantage (they’re 21-3 at Doyle Bhul Stadium this year) to win the region and advance to Lewiston.

Update: Point Park is 3-0 in the region with wins over Mayville State, Cumberlands and LSU Shreveport. Meanwhile, nationally second-ranked host and top-seeded Cumberlands has been eliminated as the offensive juggernaut only scored three runs in their two games. LSUS and Reinhardt will matchup Wednesday and the winner of that game will need to defeat the upstart Point Park team twice.

Rank Prev School State Record Last Week
1 1 Tennessee Wesleyan Bulldogs TN 51-4 0-0
2 2 Cumberlands Patriots KY 46-6 0-0
3 3 Southeastern Fire FL 47-7 0-0
4 4 Georgia Gwinnett Grizzlies GA 42-9 0-0
5 5 Central Methodist Eagles MO 43-6 1-1
6 6 USAO Drovers OK 34-10 0-0
7 7 Faulkner Eagles AL 35-9 0-0
8 8 Indiana Southeast Grenadiers IN 45-14 0-0
9 9 Lewis-Clark State Warriors ID 41-4 0-0
10 10 LSU Shreveport Pilots LA 40-13 2-0
11 11 Oklahoma Wesleyan Eagles OK 46-8 0-0
12 12 William Carey Crusaders MS 34-10 0-0
13 13 Vanguard Lions CA 37-14 0-0
18 14 Antelope Valley Pioneers CA 18-5 1-2
15 15 Loyola Wolfpack LA 36-13 0-0
16 16 Oklahoma City Stars OK 33-17 0-1
17 17 Bryan Lions TN 35-16 0-0
14 18 Benedictine Mesa Redhawks AZ 31-14 3-1
19 19 Concordia Bulldogs NE 38-9 1-0
20 20 Hope International Royals CA 27-13 0-0
21 21 Indiana Wesleyan Wildcats IN 43-12 2-0
22 22 Columbia Cougars MO 36-9 0-0
23 23 Keiser Seahawks FL 33-16 0-0
24 24 Middle Georgia State Knights GA 34-19 0-0
25 25 St. Thomas Bobcats FL 33-19 0-0



D-III

As with their D-II counterparts it was a relatively quiet week for the Top 25 teams at the D-III level due to conference tournaments. The collective group only lost a total of six games the entire week. Two of the losses were by Babson to Wheaton in the NEWMAC Championship. Consequently the Beavers were bumped from the rankings and replaced by the Lions.

A breakdown of the D-III regions with picks to advance to Cedar Rapids will be posted next week. 

Rank Prev School State Record Last Week
1 1 Washington Bears MO 28-3 2-0
2 2 Webster Gorloks MO 33-6 5-0
3 3 Salisbury Seagulls MD 23-4 2-0
4 4 UW-Whitewater Warhawks WI 34-5 4-1
5 5 North Central Cardinals IL 33-7 3-1
6 6 Trinity Tigers TX 28-7 0-0
7 7 Shenandoah Hornets VA 30-9 2-0
8 8 Marietta Pioneers OH 32-4 6-0
9 9 Cortland State Red Dragons NY 25-5 2-0
10 13 Southern Maine Huskies ME 29-8 2-0
11 11 Texas Lutheran Bulldogs TX 28-12 0-0
12 10 North Carolina Wesleyan Battling Bishops NC 31-7 2-1
13 12 Aurora Spartans IL 35-6 3-0
14 14 Rowan Profs NJ 23-4 0-0
15 15 Adrian Bulldogs MI 30-7 3-0
16 16 Washington & Jefferson Presidents PA 36-1 3-0
17 17 Coe Kohawks IA 32-5 3-1
18 18 Chapman Panthers CA 4-Oct 3-1
19 19 Johns Hopkins Blue Jays MD 3-Nov 0-0
20 20 St. Thomas Tommies MN 26-5 3-0
21 22 Eastern Connecticut State CT 31-4 2-0
22 23 Augustana Vikings IL 33-7 4-0
23 25 Oswego State Lakers NY 23-3 2-0
24 24 Berry Vikings GA 32-9 0-0
25 NR Wheaton Lyons MA 16-3 2-1

Dropped: No. 21 Randolph-Macon
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