The Baseball Observer May 2015 vol 3 | Page 42

2015 Baseball Championship Opening Round – Day One Notes No. 1 seeds end the day 6-3; No. 5 Rio Grande (Ohio) goes 2-0 5/12/15: 2015 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round - Day One Notes • For the complete 2015 NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round schedule, click HERE. • Hosts went 6-2 in day one action of the 2015 Opening Round. The two losses were by Oklahoma City and The Master’s – both No. 1 seeds. The Kingsport bracket is not included, because an institution is not directly tied with the site. • Rio Grande (Ohio), who received an automatic berth to the national championship after winning the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament, was the only five-seed to go 2-0 today. The Red Storm rolled past No. 4 Southeastern (Fla.), 10-4, in their first game of the day, before upsetting Daytona Bracket top seed Auburn Montgomery (Ala.), 3-2 in the nightcap. • Day one saw one game out of 27 go into extra innings, as No. 4 Missouri Baptist defeated No. 1 Oklahoma City, 5-4 in 13 innings. The Spartans, who in 2013 set the Opening Round record for longest game with a 19 inning marathon against Tennessee Wesleyan, won the game when Brian Poupore was hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded. • Top-seeded teams went 6-3 today. Last year, No. 1 teams went 28-6 in the Opening Round and claimed eight-of-nine berths to the World Series. • The nine Opening Round champions will join host Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) at the 59th annual Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series at Harris Field in Lewiston, Idaho, May 22 – 29. • The 10-team World Series bracket will be officially announced May 15 after the conclusion of the Opening Round brackets. 2015 Overall Records (by seeds through Day 1) No. 1 seeds: 6-3 No. 2 seeds: 5-4 No. 3 seeds: 4-5 No. 4 seeds: 7-7 No. 5 seeds: 5-8 2015 Overall Records (by conference through Day 1) American Midwest Conference: 3-3 Appalachian Athletic Conference: 1-1 Association of Independent Institutions: 1-1 Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference: 0-2 Crossroads League: 0-2 Golden State Athletic Conference: 3-2 Great Plains Athletic Conference: 0-2 Heart of America Athletic Conference: 1-2 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference: 2-0 Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conf: 2-0 Mid-South Conference: 3-1 Midlands Collegiate Athletic Conference: 2-1 Midwest Collegiate Conference: 1-1 North Star Athletic Association: 1-1 Red River Athletic Conference: 1-2 Sooner Athletic Conference: 1-1 Southern States Athletic Conference: 1-1 The Sun Conference: 2-2 Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference: 1-2 NAIA West Group: 1-0