Baseball ranked 5th in NAIA Preseason Poll
Coming off the program’s 15th Avista NAIA World Series appearance a year ago, the Bellevue University baseball team begins their quest for a 16th appearance ranked No. 5 in the Preseason NAIA Coaches’ Poll.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Coming off the program's 15th Avista NAIA World Series appearance a year ago, the Bellevue University baseball team begins their quest for a 16th appearance ranked No. 5 in the Preseason NAIA Coaches' Poll.
Defending National Champion Southeastern gathered all 20 No. 1 votes to headline the poll with 560 points. Lewis-Clark State (541), Tennessee Wesleyan (525), and LSU Shreveport (504) make up 2-4 in the poll with the Bruins (469) rounding out the top five.
Bellevue is the lone North Star Athletic Association program to receive votes in the preseason poll. Dakota State, returning virtually their entire roster, could be a team to watch for throughout the year to make some additional noise.
The Bruins will look to their returning All-Americans OF Kanta Kobayashi (Tokyo, Japan) and SS Alec Ackerman (Parker, Colo.), along with returning National Gold Glove winner Conner Barnett (Papillion, Neb.) to lead the team in 2023.
A more in-depth look at the Bruins' upcoming season will be available in January, shortly before the season kicks off. BU opens their 2023 slate against budding rival Concordia University in Oklahoma City on Saturday, Feb. 11.
Bellevue is coming off a 2022 season in which they posted a 49-13 overall mark, going 25-2 in conference play, and sweeping both the NSAA Regular-Season and Tournament titles. BU took the league's lone automatic bid in making their 24th National Tournament Appearance, hosted their fourth Opening Round at Don Roddy Field, and reached the Avista NAIA World Series for the third time in the past six full seasons.