NAIA coaches' poll for March 22, 2016. Recaps below.

NAIA coaches' poll for March 15, 2016. Recaps below.

The Bellevue Bruins are ranked #1 by Perfect Game. This makes sense. The Bruins are 17-4, despite playing most of their games on the road, and have quality wins over Oklahoma City, Tabor, and Mount Vernon Nazarene.

Last week, they played six games in a tournament hosted by Warner, and won five of them, including the tournament championship game against host Warner. One of the wins was 23-0 over Saint Ambrose. Braulio Torres-Perez pitched a no-hitter for the Bruins. He struck out ten of the 23 batters he faced, and walked two batters. On the offensive side, C Jake Browne hit two home runs and a double, and batted in ten runs. RF Colton Nash, who leads the Bruins in hitting with a .443 average, went 3-for-3 with a double and four RBI. Story

The Bruins won the tournament final 4-3 in ten innings. SS Connor Garrison hit an RBI single for the winning run. Kevin Rodriguez got the win in a 4 2/3 innings relief appearance; he allowed only one hit, and struck out five. Story

Torres-Perez is 4-0 for the season, has an ERA of 1.47, and has struck out 32.

LHP Blake Marbut threw only 59 pitches in a seven-inning 3-0 win over Union College (KY). He struck out five. The Eagles recorded another shutout on the second game of the double-header. That one was scoreless after the scheduled seven innings, and DH Alex Keown scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth on a ground ball by LF Brandon Moss. Story

The College of Idaho has started their season with four wins at Arizona Christian, and four wins at home against Division II Minot State. In one of the four games against Minot State, RHP Mason Stidham and LHP Kaleb Price combined for a no-hitter in a 13-0 win.

It was the Coyotes' first no-hitter since 1958. Stidham pitched six innings, struck out two, walked one. Price pitched three innings, struck out three, and walked two. Stidham is a transfer from Division I Seattle U. Price is a transfer from Big Bend CC, and was All-Northwest Athletic Conference in 2014. Story

The Coyotes' streak could go on for a while. They have eleven winnable games ahead of them prior to a series at home against defending champion and cross-state rival Lewis-Clark State. The eleven games include two at home against Division III Puget Sound, and two at non-NAIA Bethesda.

Their small college preview includes the NAIA, and it's here: Small College Preview, by J.J. Cooper.

Like the coaches' poll, they have L-C State and St. Thomas #1 and #2, but they have Lindsey Wilson and Davenport at #3 and #4.

The preview provides a couple of new names, 3B/RHP Lucas Erceg of Menlo and RHP Alex Martinez of Oklahoma Wesleyan. Erceg is a transfer from U. of California, and was All-Pac-12 last year. He's played in six games already this year, is batting .292. Martinez is a Dominican Republican who transferred from De Anza College.

The 2016 NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Preseason Top 25 Poll (Nov. 10)

 First place votes: Lewis-Clark State 17

Jorge Perez is the Head Coach of the Saint Thomas University Bobcats. The Bobcats were runners-up at the NAIA Baseball National Champiosnip last season, and Perez was selected ABCA/Diamond Regional Coach of the Year. His record at Saint Thomas over seven seasons is 240-172.

Bob Broughton, courtesyrunner.com: In the final game of the National Championship tournament last Spring, you led Lewis-Clark State 7-1 after five innings, and 7-4 after seven innings. What was going through the minds of you and your players at that stage of the game?

Jorge Perez: We did not get caught up in the score of the game.  We were living in the moment and thinking pitch-by-pitch.

BB: But you got two big wins in the tournament over Oklahoma Baptist and Faulkner. Tell us about them.

JP: We felt good vs. Oklahoma Baptist. We led the entire game and played very well. Faulkner’s game was a true indication of the character of this team. We played the entire 27 outs.

BB: And on the way, you got a shutout against a good Westmont team.

JP: Our ace Marcos Barrios pitched great and we got several clutch hits when we needed them.

The headliners are DH Keivan Berges of Keiser (Formerly Northwood FL) and LHP Adam Hines of LSU-Shreveport. Berges batted .333 with 156 home runs last season. Hines had an ERA of 0.96, and pitched seven complete games, including four straight. OF Colton Nash of Bellevue batted .352, hit grand slam home runs in three consecutive games. RHP Curtis Taylor of British Columbia had an ERA of 1.02. SS Cabe Reiten of Lewis-Clark State batted .411, started all 58 games.

A three-run home run by LF Jose Ruiz in the top of the sixth inning provided the winning run for the Acereros (Steelers).

The game was tied 1-1 going into the sixth. CF Eliezer Ortiz opened the scoring with a home run in the bottom of the third for the Rieleros (Railroaders), and 3B Olmo Rosario hit a long home run over the center field fence. Rieleros starter RHP Fredy Quintero was replaced by LHP Jose Sanchez after Quintero walked Rosario to start the sixth inning. Sanchez only faced two batters. He walked the first one, DH Brett Harper. (He was obviously having control problems.) The second batter he faced was Ruiz, and the result was the home run.

Ruiz' home run seemed to wake up the Rieleros offensively. DH Saul Soto led off the bottom of the sixth with a double. The next batter, 3B Danny Richar, drew a walk, and Soto and Richar moved to third and second on a wild pitch by Acereros starter RHP Jose Oyervidez. The next batter, C Carlos Rodriguez, hit a fly ball that was very close to being a three-run home run, but was a sacrifice fly instead. Richar moved to third. The next batter hit a popup that wasn't deep enough for Richar to come home, and he was stranded on third when a ground out ended the inning.