KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The TranSouth Conference boasts two teams ranked in the final rankings including No. 2 Cumberland (Tenn.) University and No. 18 Union (Tenn.) University. Both teams will begin play in the 2010 NAIA National Tournament Opening Round on Tuesday, May 18.
Cumberland earned the TranSouth's lone automatic bid by winning the conference tournament title last week in Paducah, Ky. Union earned an at-large bid. Cumberland is a No. 1 seed in the opening round tournament in Juliet, Ill., while Union is the No. 2 seed in the Oklahoma City opening round tourney.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Baseball National Championship Opening Round begins Tuesday as nine tournaments will occur at nine different cities. The format is a five-team, double-elimination tournament with three games apiece occurring on Tuesday and Wednesday and two games on Thursday. There may be a potential "if necessary" championship game on Friday. Each tournament is referred to as a "Group," with a potential to play nine total games at each site.
Champions of each National Championship Opening Round tournament will join Lewis-Clark State (Idaho), hosts of the Avista-NAIA World Series, for the 54th annual event from May 28-June 4 in Lewiston, Idaho. The 10-team, official bracket for the Avista-NAIA World Series will be announced by 10 p.m. CDT on Friday.
All of the teams that advanced to the 10-team, Avista-NAIA World Series last year are again competing in the 2010 Opening Round. Defending national champion Lubbock Christian (Texas) is one of the repeat teams and is also one of the hosts for the second straight year. The Chaps are 43-13 (.768) this season and welcome the youngest group of teams among all the tournaments. All four teams in the Group #4 tournament in Lubbock, Texas, are making their first trip to the National Championship: York (Neb.), Avila (Mo.), Mount Marty (S.D.) and Texas at Brownsville.
In the tournament field, 23 of the 45 teams competed in last year's Opening Round. Among that group is No. 1-seed Oklahoma City, who holds the second-most Championship wins (33) among the field of teams. Lewis-Clark State owns the most wins all-time in the history of the event with a 117-33 record (.780). All of the World Series winners since 1996 are competing this week (note: Birmingham Southern (Ala.) was the 2001 champion, but is no longer a NAIA member.) Lewis-Clark State has won eight titles during that stretch, including three of the last four.
Four teams are making at least their 10th trip to the National Championship led by the 29 appearances of Lewis-Clark State. Cumberland (Tenn.), Oklahoma City and William Jewell (Mo.) all are playing in their 12th event. Fourteen teams overall have at least five years of experience. St. Francis (Ill.) is making its first trip since 1995, the longest drought among those 14 teams. Mayville State (N.D.) and College of Idaho have to shake off the cobwebs as this event is their first since 2002.
Twelve teams are making their first National Championship appearance: Avila (Mo.), Faulkner (Ala.), Huntington (Ind.), Indiana-Southeast, Missouri Baptist, Mount Marty (S.D.), Northwestern (Iowa), Rio Grande (Ohio), Robert Morris (Ill.), South Carolina-Beaufort, Texas at Brownsville and York (Neb.).
This year's field is comprised of 32 automatic qualifiers from NAIA affiliated conferences, Association of Independent Institutions and unaffiliated groupings and 14 at-larges selections, which were determined using the final Top 25 rating released on May 12.
The Avista-NAIA World Series will be video-streamed live by NeuLion, the parent company of JumpTV. Users can purchase the All-Tournament pass, which includes every game for $24.95, or the day pass for $8.95. In order to view the streaming, click
here.
Opening Round Notes: This is the second year for the National Championship Opening Round tournaments - prior to 2009, there were seven Super Regional tournaments with those champions, plus two-to-three at-large bids (dependent upon if Lewis-Clark State won) heading to Lewiston for the 10-team Avista-NAIA World Series… Seven of the nine Opening Round champions last year were the No. 1 seed in each of their "Groups" - No. 2 Lee (Tenn.) and No. 2 Fresno Pacific (Calif.) upset the top seeds to advance to the World Series… There were numerous upsets last year as the No. 5 seed went a combined 8-18 - the most notable was fifth-seeded Texas Wesleyan taking top-seeded Oklahoma City to the Championship game, only to lose 6-5… The top-seed from last year boasted a 25-6 record (.806)… Three of the champions in the 2009 Opening Round had to win via the losers' bracket (Lubbock Christian, Fresno Pacific and Campbellsville (Ky.))… Among the current Championship field, eight programs have won at least one World Series title, Lewis-Clark State (16) and Lubbock Christian (2) are the only ones with multiple Championships.
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