Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 3/23/10

The Northern Sun Division 2 College Baseball Poll is back for its 2nd year.  Each week, the Northern Sun Baseball Blog combines the 3 primary Division 2 College Baseball Poll’s into 1 composite ranking of the Top 30 teams.

There’s a new number 1 team in NCAA Division 2 baseball and it’s the University of California – San Diego.  The Tritons pulled into the #1 position without playing a game.  Florida Southern, the team at the top of the polls the first 3 weeks of our 2010 poll, dropped to #2 after being punished by the NCBWA for losing 1 of their 4 games during the week.

Big movers up this week included USC – Aiken and Emporia State who move into the Top 10 and the biggest mover, Northern Kentucky, who broke into the Top 30 and jumped up all the way to a tie for 20th.  Abilene Christian, Columbus State and Franklin Pierce all dropped 4 or more spots.

The Baseball Writers poll (NCBWA) continues to be the oddball this year.  Not only did they punish Florida Southern but they have significantly different ratings than the other 2 polls in a number of areas.  These can be seen with teams like West Chester, Columbus State, New Mexico Highlands and Valdosta State.  In addition, they have 5 teams in their Top 30 that don’t show up in either of the other 2 polls.

The Northern Sun Conference lost its 1 representative in the Top 30 as Minnesota State dropped just out of the poll.  Winona State and St. Cloud State also received Top 30 recognition in at least 1 poll.

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

College Baseball News Poll

Ping!Baseball Poll

NCBWA Poll

Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 3/16/10

The Northern Sun Division 2 College Baseball Poll is back for its 2nd year.  Each week, the Northern Sun Baseball Blog combines the 3 primary Division 2 College Baseball Poll’s into 1 composite ranking of the Top 30 teams.

For the 3rd straight week Florida Southern is the unanimous #1 team in NCAA Division 2 baseball.  The Moccasins swept games against good opponents in Winona State, Ashland and Valdosta State to solidify their record.

For some reason, CBN and NCBWA dropped Southern Arkansas in the rankings despite the Muleriders winning all their games.  With those changes they move from a tie for 2nd in the poll all the way down to 5th place. 

Tampa made a big move up the rankings as they go from #20 to #15 and now to #7 this week.  They not only won 7 games during the week, they won them by a large average margin.  USC – Aiken also had a nice move upward and Southeastern Oklahoma makes its first appearance ever on this poll coming in at #26.

The Northern Sun Conference’s Minnesota State comes in at a tie for #29 while Winona State and St. Cloud State both received some votes this week.

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

College Baseball News Poll

Ping!Baseball Poll

NCBWA Poll

Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 3/10/10

The Northern Sun Division 2 College Baseball Poll is back for its 2nd year.  Each week, the Northern Sun Baseball Blog combines the 3 primary Division 2 College Baseball Poll’s into 1 composite ranking of the Top 30 teams.

For the 2nd week in a row Florida Southern was the unanimous #1 team in NCAA Division 2 College Baseball as they swept the top spot in all 3 D2 polls.  As is typical early in the season, we did see some significant movement in the rankings as Francis Marion dropped all the way from #3 to #12, Delta State dropped 7 spots to a tie for #17 and Catawba dropped from #15 all the way out of the Top 30.

On the other hand, we saw big moves upward by Columbus State who moved up from #12 to #6, UNC – Pembroke who broke into the Top 30 to a tie for #17 and Incarnate Word (#25) who last week wasn’t ranked by any of the 3 polls and this week made the Top 30 in all 3 with big wins over previous Top 30 team, Texas – Permian Basin.

One trend that continues this year is that the College Baseball News poll continues to track the most closely to the Northern Sun Poll.  CBN has only 1 of their Top 30 not make the Northern Sun Top 30.  Last year it seemed like PING! was the most divergent and they certainly have some differences this week from the other 2 (Mount Olive, Columbus State, Franklin Pierce) but it seems like the Baseball Writers poll has the most differences with choices like New Mexico Highlands (#10), Francis Marion at #20 and Cal State Bernardino at #12 when they don’t even make the other 2 polls at all.

Northern Sun Conference team, Minnesota State, is now in the Top 30 in 2 of the national polls and is tied for #28 in the Northern Sun D2 Poll.  Winona State also made the Top 30 in 2 polls but didn’t get enough total points to crack the Top 30 in the composite poll.

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

College Baseball News Poll

Ping!Baseball Poll

NCBWA Poll

Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 3/5/10

The Northern Sun Division 2 College Baseball Poll is back for its 2nd year.  Each week, the Northern Sun Baseball Blog combines the 3 primary Division 2 College Baseball Poll’s into 1 composite ranking.

There is a consensus #1 team in NCAA D2 College Baseball and it’s Florida Southern.  The team did lose 13-1 on Tuesday after the poll came out.  The fact that the loss was against the Detroit Tigers major league team probably won’t hurt them in the polls – Moc’s Lose to Tigers

As is common in early season polls, there are lots of diverging opinions about the rest of the Top 30 teams.  Only 20 teams are on all 3 polls but you have lots of different opinions on teams like Cal State – San Bernardino who is ranked 5th by the Baseball Writers, #25 by D2 Head Coaches and out of the Top 30 by Ping.  Mount Olive is another case where NCBWA ranks the 14-0 team #2 overall but they only manage #15 by Ping.  Their games on Wednesday against our #15 team, Catawba, were postponed unfortunately.

With their #22 ranking in the NCBWA poll it allowed Minnesota State from the Northern Sun Conference to achieve a #24 ranking in our poll.  I’m guessing their doubleheader loss to Bemidji State this week will make that short lived.  St. Cloud State (#28) and Wayne State (#30) all were recognized in the NCBWA poll this week.

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

College Baseball News Poll

Ping!Baseball Poll

NCBWA Poll

Wayne State – 2010 Preview

Today I conclude my 2010 season previews with a preview of Wayne State.  I look back at their results in 2009, key roster transitions and make a prediction about where I expect the 2010 team will finish.

Wayne State – 2009 Results

The Wildcats concluded 2009 the same way they’ve been concluding seasons for some time now – with the Northern Sun Conference regular season title and a trip to the NCAA Regional Tournament.  In fact, this was the 6th straight conference title and NCAA appearance.  Along the way, the team set records for most wins by a NSIC team in league play going 27-4 and tying a team record for most wins in a season with an overall record of 45-14.  After winning the regular season crown the team finished 2nd in the NSIC Postseason Tournament (NSIC Tourney Results) and then went on to finish 2nd in the NCAA Regional to just miss out on a chance to advance to the D2 College World Series Mesa State Upends Wayne St.. 

Final 2009 Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll

Each week during the 2009 NCAA Division 2 college baseball season the Northern Sun Baseball blog combined the 3 primary D2 baseball polls into 1 composite ranking.  This week 2 of the 3 ranking services put out their year end polls so it seems appropriate to combine those into 1 final composite poll for the year.

Lynn University is the unanimous choice as the #1 team in Division II baseball with their run to the 2009 NCAA D2 Championship.  Emporia State, the 2nd place team, was #2 in both polls.

In fact, as might be expected, the 2 polls are the most similar they’ve been all year.  All 8 teams that made it to the D2 College World Series cracked the Top 10.  The 2 teams in the Top 10 that didn’t make it there were both teams that eventual champion Lynn had to beat in the South Regional to reach the World Series.

For the Northern Sun Conference, Wayne State (NE) cracked the Top 30 in the #30 position.

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

College Baseball News Poll

Ping!Baseball Poll

Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 4/21/09

Each week, the Northern Sun Baseball Blog combines the 3 primary Division 2 College Baseball Poll’s into 1 composite ranking.

Southern Arkansas remains as the #1 team in this week’s Northern Sun D2 College Baseball poll as they swept the top spot in all 3 polls.  There was major upheaval in this week’s poll as a number of highly ranked teams had poor weeks on the field.  In addition, we had been seeing the polls coming closer together a few weeks ago but they seem to be diverging in opinions over the last couple weeks.

Emporia State moves up from #5 to #2 this week.  They were ranked #3 in all 3 polls but because the Ping poll moved Mesa State down so far it allowed Emporia to grab the 2nd spot.  Barry moves up to #3 with Mesa State and West Chester rounding out the top 5.

Florida Southern took a huge tumble, falling all the way from #2 to #12.  Grand Valley State took a similar dive going from #4 to #15.

On the divergent opinion side you have teams like SC – Aiken getting top 10 rankings in 2 polls but being left out of the Ping poll.  You have Delta State at #5, #20 and not rated and you have Central Missouri at #7, #29 and not rated.  Among the top 30 teams only 18 of them made it onto all 3 Top 30 rankings.

The Northern Sun Conference is represented as Wayne State (NE) moved all the way up to #12 on the NCBWA poll and is sitting at #21 in the composite poll after not making the Top 30 last week.  Minnesota State and St. Cloud State received votes but not enough to make the Top 30.

 

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

College Baseball News Poll

Ping!Baseball Poll

NCBWA Poll

NCAA Division 2 Baseball Rankings – 4/13/09

The College Baseball News and Ping!Baseball D2 college baseball rankings have been released for the week.

• The College Baseball News Division 2 college baseball poll saw a big shakeup at the top of the rankings as last week’s #1 team (Florida Southern) and #2 team (Grand Valley State) both dropped 3 spots to #4 & #5 respectively.  That allowed Southern Arkansas to jump to their #1 spot.  Mesa State also moved up a spot to #2 and Emporia State moves up to #3 from #5.  Overall, there wasn’t as much movement as we’ve seen in some weeks as only 1 team that was in last week’s top 20 fell out of the top 20 this week (Cameron from #12 to #21) as USC Aiken jumped from #24 to #14.  The Northern Sun’s Wayne State (NE) continues to make incremental progress up the poll as they moved from #27 to #23 this week.  College Baseball News Ranking
• Ping!Baseball didn’t have as big a shakeup at the top since they have had Southern Arkansas as their #1 team for 7 straight weeks.  Florida Southern and Grand Valley State stayed at #2 & #3 in their Top 30.  In fact, they made no changes at all to their top 10 from last week.  Erskine took the biggest fall moving from #11 to #21 with a lousy week.  Ping continues to rank the Northern Sun’s St. Cloud State in their poll although they dropped from #26 to #30.  Why they have the Huskies in the poll ahead of teams like Wayne State and Minnesota State is a mystery to me.  Ping!Baseball Ranking

NSIC Scores From April Fools Day

Hey, I know this is a little late and but I thought I’d update the scores from around the Northern Sun Conference in yesterday’s D2 college baseball games:

• NW Missouri State beat Wayne State 5-1 – Fielding mistakes plague Wildcats again as they give up 4 unearned runs Wildcats Bats Go Silent
• Upper Iowa and Quincy Split (6-7, 6-2) – Peacock pitcher Brad Mey throws gem in game 2 Upper Iowa Earns Split
• Winona St. Sweeps Nebraska – Kearney 4-0 & 14-1 – Tony Mueller & Ronnie Olson each have 4 hits on day WSU Overwhelms Lopers

So far, 4 of the scheduled 6 Conference series’ for this weekend have been shifted to Friday/Saturday affairs to avoid forecasted bad weather on Sunday.  Don’t forget to vote on who you think will take the MSUM – SMSU series in our poll on the right.

Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 3/31/09

Each week, the Northern Sun Baseball Blog combines the 3 primary Division 2 College Baseball Poll’s into 1 composite ranking.

For the 2nd week in a row, Grand Valley State is the #1 team in our poll.  This week they maintained that position even though they are ranked #1 in only 1 of the 3 polls.  In fact, the top 4 teams all stayed in their same spots. 

We continue to see continuity at the top of the polls and some wide divergence toward the middle and bottom.  That said, there are 21 teams in our Top 30 that were in the Top 30 of all 3 polls while last week there were only agreements on 19.

The biggest gainer included California State – Stanislaus which moved from out of the Top 30 into the #21 position and Texas – Permian Basin which moved from #29 up to #18. 

The Northern Sun Conference is represented this week as Wayne State (NE) makes an appearance at #26.  This is the first time Wayne State has appeared in this composite poll.  St. Cloud State did receive votes but not enough to crack the Top 30.

California State – Los Angeles dropped from #13 all the way out of the Top 30.  Others dropping out this week included North Alabama, Southern Indiana, Central Missouri, Henderson Stat and Colorado State – Pueblo.

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

College Baseball News Poll

Ping!Baseball Poll

NCBWA Poll

Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 3/24/09

There’s a new #1 Division 2 College Baseball team according to this week’s Northern Sun College Baseball D2 Composite Poll.

Grand Valley State has overtaken Southern Arkansas for the #1 spot in this week’s ranking taking over from the Muleriders who had led for the past 3 weeks.  Grand Valley State becomes just the 2nd team to ever be in the #1 position on the NSB poll which began in 2009 by combining the 3 major Division 2 college baseball polls into 1 composite ranking.

We are finally starting to see a little more stability in the rankings of the top 8 or so teams.  Previous weeks had seen wide variances in the opinions of the 3 polls.  That said, there is still a lot of differences once you get past the top 8. 

The Northern Sun Conference had 2 teams receive votes this week.  Wayne State received a Top 30 ranking in 2 of the 3 polls but not enough votes to crack the combined NSB Top 30.  St. Cloud State also received votes in the NSBWA Top 30.

Others Receiving Votes –

UMass – Lowell 12, Cal. St. Stanislaus 11, Columbus State 10, Cameron 9, Wayne State (NE) 9, Ouachita Baptist 9, Pfeiffer 7, Valdosta State 5, Hawaii Pacific 5, California (PA) 3, St. Cloud State 2, Francis Marion 2, Indianapolis 2

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking

Northern Sun D2 College Baseball Poll – 3/17/09

Southern Arkansas has claimed the top spot in 2 of the 3 national Division 2 College Baseball polls.  This gives them the #1 position in the Northern Sun Baseball Division 2 Composite Poll for the 2nd week in a row.  Grand Valley State grabbed the top spot in this weeks National College Baseball Writers Association poll which moved them from #5 in last weeks NSB poll into the #2 position.

There continues to be a wide variance in the rankings in the 3 polls each week.

Biggest Variances –

• There is a big difference in views on Central Missouri who is ranked #3, #16 & #25 (#10 in NSB)
• Sonoma State also saw diverging opinions being ranked #6, #11 & #29 (#12 in NSB)

Biggest Gainers –

• Georgia College & State moved up from not being ranked all the way to #9 in the NSB poll
• California – San Diego had a great week against Cal State – Stanislaus and moved from #25 to #8

Biggest Decliners –

• Cal State – Stanislaus fell from being the #1 ranked team in the CBN poll to #26 and from #2 in the CBN Composite Poll all the way down to a tie for 19th
• Nova Southeastern also dropped from #7 to a tie for 19th

This week does mark the first week of a Northern Sun Conference team making the Northern Sun Baseball Poll as Concordia University of St. Paul claimed a tie for #28.  It was interesting that all 3 national polls had a different team at #18 that wasn’t mentioned in the other polls and that this caused a 3 way tie for the last spot.

 

CBN – College Baseball News; Ping – Ping!Baseball; NCBWA – National College Baseball Writers Association; NSB Rank – Northern Sun Baseball Composite Poll; Comb Pts – Combined points in the composite rankings; LW – Last week’s composite ranking