KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced its 2024 NAIA Tournament Opening Round field on Thursday afternoon and for the first time in program history, the No. 11 MACU Baseball team was selected to compete in the championship field.
Not only are the Evangels competing in their first NAIA Tournament, but MACU was also selected as the No. 1 seed in the Hattiesburg, Mississippi bracket and will compete against No. 4 seed Milligan (Tenn.) at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 13 to open the tourney.
The Evangels earned an automatic berth to the NAIA Tournament after winning the program's first ever Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament Championship by a score of 12-6 over No. 22 Oklahoma City at Bill Smith Ballpark in Chickasha, Oklahoma on Tuesday.
MACU wrapped up the SAC Tourney with a program-record 40 wins, going 40-11 while also winning the program's first ever SAC regular season title after going 20-4 in league play. Impressively, MACU is also the only the second baseball team in the conference to win all eight of its SAC series in the 12 years.
Mid-America Christian put together an incredible resume for postseason play, going 8-2 against teams ranked in the final NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll as well as 14-6 against teams ranked or receiving votes in the poll.
The Evangels raked in the All-Sooner Athletic Conference awards with a program-record nine players receiving All-SAC accolades. Head Coach Brett Stanton was named the program's first SAC Coach of the Year while senior starting pitcher Isaac Baez became MACU's second pitcher to receive the distinguished SAC Pitcher of the Year accolade since Keisy Portorreal in 2018.
Joining Baez on the All-SAC First Team was senior starting pitcher Zane Robeaux, junior catcher Zachary Stark, junior first baseman Kyle Williams, junior outfielder Noel McGarry-Doyle and junior outfielder D'Andre Gaines while senior relief pitcher Cameron Brown, sophomore second baseman Jacob Police and junior shortstop Carlos Medina was selected to the Second Team.
