Fire awaits RedStorm in NAIA Baseball tourney
Rio Grande Sports Information
RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The University of Rio Grande baseball team is heading south to play at the Embry-Riddle regional site in the 2015 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round.
The pairings for the nine, five-team regional sites in the first round of the national tournament were announced Friday night by the NAIA national office.
The fifth-seeded RedStorm (32-20) will face No. 4 seed Southeastern (Fla.) (38-19) on Tuesday, May 12, at 10 a.m., at Sliwa Stadium in Daytona Beach, Fla. The winner will face top-seeded Auburn-Montgomery (40-16) in Tuesday's 6 p.m. wrapup, following the 2 p.m. tilt between No. 2 seed Embry-Riddle (36-17) and third-seeded Bryan (Tenn) (42-16).
The winner's bracket final and a pair of elimination games are slated for Wednesday, May 13, while the loser's bracket final and the championship first final are scheduled for Thursday, May 14 and a second final, if necessary - will take place on Friday, May 15.
Rio Grande punched its ticket to the double-elimination tournament by winning the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament championship with a 6-1 win over Indiana University-Southeast in Kingsport, Tenn. It was the 12th consecutive win for head coach Brad Warnimont's team.
Rio Grande is the only KIAC school in the tournament field, which includes 29 automatic qualifiers and 16 at-large selections.
For the first time in NAIA baseball history, at-large teams were determined by a National Selection Committee (NSC). The NSC consists of one representative from each geographic area, a representative from the National Administrative Council (NAC) Rules and Ratings Committee, the president of the NAIA-Baseball Coaches Association and three at-large members. The committee evaluated teams throughout the year on various criteria.
Rio Grande is making its second trip to the national tourney after making the field in 2010 as the champion of the Mid-South Conference.
The RedStorm posted a 5-4 win over Faulkner (Ga.) in their regional opener that year - ironically, also played at Embry-Riddle - before being eliminated as a result of one-run losses to the host school and St. Thomas (Fla).
Of the 45 schools comprising this year's tournament field, 27 are making repeat appearances and four are first-time participants.
The nine regional winners will join host Lewis-Clark State in the 59th Annual Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series, which is slated for May 22-29, in Lewiston, Idaho.