The Lewis-Clark State College baseball team made it a clean sweep by being ranked No. 1 in the NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll for the entire regular season as the Warriors were again the unanimous choice for the top spot in the final poll, which was released on Wednesday.

The Warriors, 47-3 overall, were ranked No. 1 in all seven regular-season polls, including the unanimous No. 1 with all 24 votes in the final five polls. LCSC now takes a 16-game win streak into the Avista NAIA World Series, which begins on May 28 at LCSC’s Harris Field.

The Warriors will be joined by nine teams who survive five-team opening-round tournaments. The official announcement of the teams playing in opening round is scheduled for Thursday as well as the nine tournament host sites.  The official announcement of the National Championship Opening Round bracket will be made on Friday. The opening round tournaments will begin next Tuesday and Wednesday.

This week, Lewis-ClarkState recorded 684 total points in the poll. Pitching has been a strong suit for the Warriors, as they rank in the top-five statistically in strikeouts per nine innings (7.80) and earned run average (2.65). With a winning percentage of .940, the Warriors broke the official NAIA regular-season record for win percentage, held by Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) during the 1996 season (.935).

Second-ranked Cumberland (Tenn.) remains in a position it has become familiar with. The Bulldogs earned 662 total points this week and ends the regular season with its fifth straight No. 2-ranking. At 46-8, Cumberland is the top seed in the TranSouth Athletic Conference Tournament, which ends Thursday. Cumberland has been a power team, this season ranking first in the NAIA in home runs per game (2.14) and second in slugging percentage (.651). Individually, Matt Greener tops the national charts with 25 homers, 102 total hits and a .505 batting average.

For the second straight week, California Baptist holds down the No. 3 spot with 630 points. Currently hosting the Golden State Athletic Conference Tournament, the No. 1-seed Lancers are 41-12 overall. California Baptist is enjoying its most successful season in program history and claimed the conference player of the year, Brian Sharp, the pitcher of the Year, Drew Madrigal and the coach of the year, Gary Adcock.

Garnering 614 total points, No. 4 Lee (Tenn.) continues its stranglehold in the top 10. The Flames have been ranked no lower than No. 8 all season, and have been in the top 15 in every poll since the 2008 Preseason Top 25. Lee won the regular season Southern States Athletic Conference crown and head into the National Championship Opening Round with a 46-11 record.

Lubbock Christian (Texas) wraps up the regular season with its second straight No. 5 ranking. The Chaps, who are 40-11 overall, are winners in 15 of their last 16 games (as of May 9). Lubbock Christian posted 601 total points. The defending national champions rank first in the NAIA in runs scored per game (10.3) and has amassed 10 or more runs in 26 of 51 games this year.

The three newcomers to the final Top 25, No. 23 Avila (Mo.), No. 24 Tennessee Wesleyan and No. 25 Rio Grande (Ohio), all were ranked in at least two polls this year prior to an absence last week.

The Southern States Athletic Conference leads all conferences and unaffiliated groupings with four members ranked in the Top 25. The SSAC boasts Lee, No. 13 Southern Poly State (Ga.), No. 16 Faulkner (Ala.) and No. 22 Brewton-Parker (Ga.).

The poll was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the 25 conferences, independents and unaffiliated groups.

NOTES:
No. 1 Lewis-ClarkState (Idaho), No. 13 Southern Poly State (Ga.) and No. 25 Rio Grande (Ohio) are tied with the most wins (47) in the NAIA… Before Lewis-ClarkState was ranked No. 1, Lubbock Christian (Texas) was the top-ranked preseason team on Nov. 17, 2009… There have been a total of 41 teams ranked at least one point during the course of the 2010 season… Bellevue (Neb.), Union (Ky.) and William Jewell (Mo.) all fell out of the Top 25 this week… Lewis-Clark State head coach Ed Cheff has now won 40 games or more in 33 of his 34 years and has a NAIA-best (among active coaches) 1,700 career victories which he achieved on May 2… No. 2 Cumberland (Tenn.) has held a top-five ranking during all seven regular season polls… No. 3 California Baptist has made quite the jump this year – the Lancers started the preseason unranked and vaulted all the way to No. 5 in the first regular-season poll and remained there until its current No. 3 spot… Lewis-ClarkState has not been ranked lower than No. 10 going all the way back to the final poll of the 1989 regular season… Since 2000, Lewis-ClarkState has been No. 1 a total of 53 times, which includes a stretch of 25 straight weeks spanning the 2006-08 seasons… The next team after Lewis-ClarkState with the most No. 1 rankings since 2000 is Oklahoma City with 25, followed by Lubbock Christian (Texas) with 13, Embry-Riddle (Fla.) with eight and Cumberland (Tenn.) with three.

2010 NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Poll – (May 12 - FINAL)

RANK	LAST WEEK	SCHOOL	2010 RECORD*	TOTAL POINTS
1	1	Lewis-Clark State College (Idaho) (24)	47-3	684
2	2	Cumberland University (Tenn.)	46-8	662
3	3	California BaptistUniversity	41-12	630
4	4	Lee University (Tenn.)	46-11	614
5	5	Lubbock ChristianUniversity (Texas)	40-11	601
6	8	Oklahoma City University	41-13	552
7	8	University of British Columbia	39-11	544
8	9	Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (Fla.)	37-15	532
9	12	Louisiana State University-Shreveport	45-11	511
10	10	Madonna University (Mich.)	43-7	498
11	14	Fresno PacificUniversity (Calif.)	31-13	426
12	16	Missouri BaptistUniversity	41-12	415
13	15	Southern PolytechnicStateUniversity (Ga.)	47-11	405
14	10	Belhaven University (Miss.)	40-15	401
15	13	College of Idaho	37-13	376
16	17	Faulkner University (Ala.)	39-19	346
17	18	Point LomaNazareneUniversity (Calif.)	33-16-1	323
18	21	Union University (Tenn.)	37-13	302
19	20	York College (Neb.)	38-10	262
20	19	University of South Carolina - Beaufort	38-12	244
21	21	Campbellsville University (Ky.)	40-20	221
22	23	Brewton-Parker College (Ga.)	40-16	219
23	RV	Avila University (Mo.)	37-11	206
24	RV	Tennessee WesleyanCollege	38-15	187
25	RV	University of Rio Grande (Ohio)	47-11	128

Others receiving votes:

Vanguard University (Calif.) 113; Taylor University (Ind.) 109; Jamestown College (N.D.) 70; Union College (Ky.) 69; Lindenwood University (Mo.) 65; Wayland Baptist University (Texas) 50; University of St. Francis (Ill.) 39; Southern Nazarene University (Okla.) 11; Auburn University Montgomery (Ala.) 8; Savannah College of Art and Design (Ga.) 6; University of Houston - Victoria (Texas) 5; Saint Xavier University (Ill.) 4; William Jewell College (Mo.) 3; Indiana University Southeast 1; Grand View University (Iowa) 1; Shawnee State University (Ohio) 1; Spring Arbor University (Mich.) 1; Lambuth University (Tenn.) 1; Texas Wesleyan University 1; Bellevue University (Neb.) 1; The Master's College (Calif.) 1; William Carey University (Miss.) 1; Mount Marty College (S.D.) 1; Warner University (Fla.) 1

* Record as submitted by the conference rater and through games played on May 9.