NAIA Opening Round Snapshots & Scoreboards

The 2025 NAIA Opening Round begins on Monday at 10 host sited as a total of 46 teams look to advance to the NAIA World Series.

The Sooner State has a total of 3 teams in the National Tournament with 2 of them receiving a 2 seed at their site and the other a 3 seed.

Let’s take a look at the fields for each team and make sure to check back as we will update the scores for each one.

Hattiesburg, MS

(1) William Carey (2) Oklahoma Wesleyan (3) British Columbia (4) IU Southeast

1. William Carey

Record: 38-12
Qualification: SSAC Conference Tournament Runner Up
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 11
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #10

2. Oklahoma Wesleyan

Record: 46-9
Qualification: KCAC Regular Season Champions
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 15
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #11

3. British Columbia

Record: 36-17
Qualification: Cascade Collegiate Confernce Tournament Runner Up
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 15
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #24

4. IU Southeast

Record: 30-16
Qualification: At Large
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 9
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #18

On paper, this is a evenily matched bracket. All 4 teams ended the regular season in the top 25 of the NAIA Coaches Poll. IU Southeast comes in at #18, but they struggled the last few weeks as they were #10 in the previous poll 2 weeks earlier. Perhaps that is the reason why they are the 4 seed in this group.

Speaking of IU Southeast, they and William Carey both met in the NAIA World Series in the opening game in Lewiston. WC beat IU Southeast 6-5 in that game.

But that was last year. Looking at these 4 teams, this writer likes the Eagles chances. Overall, the Eagles have been the most proficient offensive team. They have the highest team batting average at .348 (WC is next at .328) and they are only 0.07 behind WC for the best team ERA (5.22 vs 5.29). OKWU also leads this group in runs/game at 10.5 (WC 10.12, UBC 9.08, IUSE 8.63).

The Eagles also has the KCAC Pitcher of the Year in Evan Foor and All KCAC 1st Team starting pitcher in Michael Mendoza. That is a good 1-2 punch at the top of the rotation and as the bracket goes on, the Eagles should feast on other teams’ back ends of the rotations.

Scoreboard

Monday

Game 1: OKWU 3 UBC 9
Game 2.: WCU 9 IUSE 10

Tuesday

Game 3: OKWU 16 WCU 11
Game 4: UBC 14 IUSE 4

Wednesday

Game 5: OKWU vs IUSE
Game 6: UBC vs Winner Game 5

Thursday

Game 7: If necessary

Lincoln, NE

(1) Webber International (2) Concordia (3) USAO (4) Indiana Wesleyan (5) Mount Mercy

1. Webber International

Record: 41-13
Qualification: Sun Conference Tournament Champion
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 7
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #7

2. Concordia (NE)

Record: 40-11
Qualification: Great Plains Athletic Conference Regular Season Champion
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 7
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #12

3. USAO

Record: 34-18
Qualification: SAC Conference Tournament Champion
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 10
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: NR

4. Indiana Wesleyan

Record: 29-21
Qualification: Crossroads League Tournament Runner Up
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 5
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2023
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: NR

5. Mount Mercy

Record: 33-21
Qualification: Heart of America Conference Tournament Runner Up
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: NR

On paper, this is a bracket that doesn’t seem as tough as the Hattiesburg or Shreveport brackets. However, what it does feature is a group of 5 teams with remarkably similar statistics.

Concordia has scored the most runs per game at almost a full run and a half over USAO, but the Drovers have the highest team batting average at 3.24.

The 1 seed, Webber International has the lowest team ERA at 3.75 which leads the 2nd best USAO who has an ERA of 4.56.

The Drovers seem to be under seeded at a 3. Per USAO Asst AD, Tanner Shoemaker, the Dovers won the season series vs other 2 seeds, Bellevue (2-1) and Wayland Baptist (4-2), as well as splitting with MACU (2-2). The Drovers are 13-5 since the beginning of April and they just won the SAC Tournament defeating MACU and WBU on the way to doing so.

While there are 3 Conference Pitchers of the Year in this bracket, the Drovers may have the best in Brian Ereu (10-1 15 GS 91.1 IP 2.96 ERA 81 K 21 BB 1.18 WHIP). Ereu is coming off 2 – 9 inning complete games in his last 2 outings and he is pitching his best at this point of the season.

Scoreboard

Monday

Game 1: IWU 3 MM 0
Game 2: USAO 4 CUNE 5
Game 3: WIU 5 IWU 4

Tuesday

Game 4: MM 3 USAO 6
Game 5: CUNE 0 WIU 3
Game 6: USAO 9 IWU 11

Wednesday

Game 7: Winner Game 6 vs Loser Game 5
Game 8: Winner Game 5 vs Winner Game 7

Thursday

Game 9: If necessary

Shreveport, LA

(1) LSU Shreveport (2) MACU (3) Johnson (TN) (4) Ottawa (5) Southern New Orleans

1. LSU Shreveport

Record: 51-0
Qualification: Red River Athletic Conference Regular Season & Tournament Champion
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 16
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #1

2. MACU

Record: 38-15
Qualification: At-large
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2024
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #19

3. Johnson (TN)

Record: 35-16
Qualification: At-large
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 1st
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: N/A
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: #21

4. Ottawa

Record: 38-14
Qualification: At-large
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 3
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 2022
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: RV

5. Southern New Orleans

Record: 25-25
Qualification: HBCU Athletic Conference Tournament Runner Up
Number of NAIA Opening Round Appearances: 1st
Last NAIA Opening Round Appearances: NA
Final NAIA Coaches Poll: NR

The good news for MACU? They are a 2 seed in the Opening Round. The bad news for MACU? They are in the brackets with LSU Shreveport who is 51-0 (a record setting start in all of college baseball).

LSU Shreveport understandably has the best team stats in the bracket. Not only do they have a team batting average of .368, they have a ridiculous team ERA of 2.23.

MACU is no slouch at the plate this year with a team ERA of .340. Their offense is a change from what they are us to according to Head Coach, Brett Stanton. He told this writer earlier in the season they are slugging more than what was expected.

On the mound, the Evangels have been up and down this season. Fabian Hernandez is the best arm on the staff right now. He’ll need to provide another great performance as will the rest of the staff.

The Evangels’ first game with Johnson could be one of the best games in the first round.

Scoreboard

Monday

Game 1: Ottawa 6 SUNO 0
Game 2: MACU 6 Johnson 13
Game 3: LSUS 5 Ottawa 2

Tuesday

Game 4: SUNO 7 MACU 16
Game 5: Johnson 4 LSUS 15
Game 6: MACU 7 Ottawa 6

Wednesday

Game 7: MACU vs Johnson
Game 8: LSUS vs Winner Game 7

Thursday

Game 9: If necessary

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