By Jacob Norling
May 13, 2021
 
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) Bracket:  Tournament Page:  The NAIA announced on Thursday afternoon the 45 qualifiers for the baseball national tournament, as well as which teams will be headed to Santa Barbara for the Opening Round Tournament from May 17-20. Five teams in Santa Barbara will play for a trip to the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho, beginning on May 28.
 
WHO:
 
The number one seed at the Santa Barbara Bracket will be #6 Georgia Gwinnett (42-9), who received an automatic bid into the national tournament after winning the Association of Independent Institutions (A.I.I.) championship. Westmont will welcome GSAC rival #14 Hope International (27-13) as the number two seed, as the Royals received an at-large bid into the national tournament following a second place finish in the GSAC West.
 
Westmont (28-20) will be the three seed in Santa Barbara next week as the Warriors earned an at-large bid into the national tournament. The fourth seed at the Santa Barbara bracket goes to Saint Katherine (29-16) after the Firebirds defeated Benedictine Mesa in the Cal Pac Conference championship.
 
Corban (Ore.) (22-29) rounds out the bracket as the five seed, after receiving their first ever bid to the national tournament. The Corban Warriors earned an automatic bid into the national tournament after reaching the Cascade Collegiate Conference championship game. Since Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) already possessed an automatic bid for hosting the NAIA World Series, the second place team in the CCC tournament received an auto-bid into the opening round.
 
WHEN:
 
The five teams will play a double-elimination tournament beginning on Monday May 17 at 9:00 a.m. The Firebirds will be the home team against the Corban Warriors. The winner of that first game will play Game Three against the one-seeded Grizzlies at 4:00 p.m. The winner of Game Three advances to Game Five.
 
Hope International and Westmont will add to their history during Game Two at 12:30 PM on Monday, as the Royals will be the home team and occupy the Warriors' third base dugout. The winner of that game will play in Game Five at 12:30 p.m. the following day.
 
The loser of Game Two will play the loser of Game One, and those two teams will kick off play on Tuesday with Game Four of the tournament at 9:00 a.m. The winner of game five at 12:30 p.pm. advances to game eight of the tournament, at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, needing only one win in two games to advance to Lewiston.
 
Game six of the tournament will feature the loser of Game Three and the winner of Game Four. The winner of Game Six will then advance to take on the loser of Game Five at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday.
 
The winner of Game Seven on Wednesday will then play the only undefeated team remaining in a game immediately after, beginning at 2:30 p.m.
 
If the winner of Game Eight is the undefeated team, the tournament will be over with the undefeated team advancing to the NAIA World Series. If the undefeated team loses Game Eight, a final game will be played at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday, with the winner advancing to the NAIA World Series.
 
HOW THEY GOT HERE:
 
Top-seeded Georgia Gwinnett dominated the A.I.I. going 42-9 as the Grizzlies will enter the Opening Round on a 13 game winning streak. As a team the Grizzlies carry a collective batting average of .374 to go along with an OPS of 1.086.
 
The offense is led by standout Griffin Keller who has started all 51 games for the Grizzlies and carries a .495 batting average and 1.427 OPS into the Opening Round. Keller leads the club with 12 home runs and 75 RBIs, and is one of three members of the starting lineup hitting over .400 (Austin Bates and Livingston Morris).
 
The Grizzlies' pitching staff carries a 3.79 ERA and is highlighted by closer Hunter Caudelle, who has surrendered just one run in 14.1 innings. Caudelle has struck out 27 batters and walked just four, while limiting opponents to a .140 batting average. He has surrendered just one extra-base hit this season.
 
The starting staff for the Grizzlies will feature two men carrying sub-three ERAS, Gage Williams and Hunter Dollander. Williams has held opponents to a .190 batting average and Dollander leads the club with 81 strikeouts.
 
The Grizzlies have been to the NAIA World Series on three separate occasions (2014, 2018, 2019).
 
Hope International went 22-10 in GSAC play, finishing with the same record as #10 Vanguard (who owned the tiebreaker). The Royals had both the GSAC Player and Pitcher of the Year with Tony Monroy leading the charge offensively and Izzy Fuentes leading the staff.
 
Monroy led what was the most lethal offense in the GSAC, as the South Gate native hit .370 with an OPS of 1.118 to go along with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs. Collectively the Royals carry an OPS of .904 into the Opening Round with an offense that has one other member of the All-GSAC team, Brennan McKenzie. While Monroy took home the biggest piece of hardware, McKenzie leads the team in batting average with a .378 clip and a team-high 16 home runs.
 
Fuentes comes into the Opening Round with a 7-3 record and a GSAC-leading 81 strikeouts, averaging 13.2 a game. The Royals' pitching staff as a whole carries an ERA of 5.18 thanks to the hitter-friendly GSAC.
 
Hope International has been to the NAIA World Series once before, back in 2017. The Royals took six of eight from the third-seeded Westmont Warriors during the regular season.
 
Westmont will rely greatly on the top of their lineup to produce in the Opening Round as three of their first four hitters in the lineup were named to the All-GSAC team. Leadoff hitter John Jensen carries an OPS of 1.077 into the Opening Round to go along with a team-leading 13 home runs. Cleanup hitter Thomas Rudinsky is right behind Jensen with an OPS of 1.073 and a team-leading 25 walks to go along with nine home runs.
 
GSAC Freshman of the Year Simon Reid is Westmont's most valuable player on both sides of the ball, as the catcher is hitting .377 and also guiding a Warrior pitching staff that has had to navigate a tough conference schedule.
 
If the Warriors have a lead late, they will rely on GSAC Gold Glove Shortstop Robbie Haw, who carries a 1.64 era and a team-high six saves into the Opening Round. From a starting pitching standpoint, Westmont will ask inning-eaters Chad Stoner and Jameson Kruger to lead the way.
 
Westmont has never been to the NAIA World Series.
 
Saint Katherine went undefeated during the Cal Pac tournament thanks to their ability to win close games, including two one-run victories over Benedictine Mesa. The Firebirds are led offensively by three men who in their starting lineup currently hitting above .400: Dylan Jacob, Casey Petersen, and Brady Ware.
 
Jacob is the most dangerous bat in the Firebird lineup as the junior brings a .452 batting average, a 1.468 OPS, and 18 home runs to the Santa Barbara Bracket. Saint Katherine collectively is hitting .351 with a 1.012 OPS. The team has slugged 72 home runs in 45 games so far this season.
 
The Firebirds' pitching staff will be led by starters Kyle Huett and Marcus Christy who have hurled more than 60 innings already this season. Huett leads the staff with 82 strikeouts. Christy enters the Opening Round with an impressive 9-1 record.
 
The Firebirds have never been to the NAIA World Series.
 
Corban got hot at the perfect time in order to punch their ticket to the Opening Round for the first time in program history. Down to their final out in the CCC tournament against Oregon Tech, the Warriors tied things up in the ninth and rallied to win 6-4 in 13 innings to earn their spot in Santa Barbara.
 
The Corban offense will rely on Morgan Hostetler at the top of the lineup as the junior comes in with a team-high OBP of .373. Reese Fawley and Dakota Fingar will bring the power for the Warriors as the two share the team lead in homers with seven each. Fingar leads qualified starters with a team-high OPS of .867.
 
The pitching staff for Corban will rely on ace Zack Simon who carries a 1.88 ERA and 6-2 record into the Opening Round. Fellow starter Nate Martin enters the Opening Round with a team-leading 62.2 innings under his belt. Jacob Asa and Braedyn Chong each have three saves.
 
WHERE TO WATCH:
 
Live coverage will be available free of charge on the Westmont Athletics website at https://athletics.westmont.edu/coverage all week long.
 
Limited tickets are available at https://athletics.westmont.edu/BaseballTickets on the Westmont Athletics website.