KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced its baseball Opening Round pairings on Wednesday afternoon as the MACU Baseball team was selected to compete in the Shreveport bracket from May 11-14.
The Evangels earned one of the SAC's two automatic bids to the NAIA Tournament after capturing the program's second SAC Tournament Championship, defeating No. 15 Texas Wesleyan 16-6 to force a winner-take-all before defeating the Rams again by a score of 22-4 at Joe Becker Ballpark in Joplin, Mo. on May 3. It was the second league title after defeating No. 22 Oklahoma City 12-6 at Bill Smith Ballpark on May 7, 2024.
MACU is playing in the NAIA Tournament for the third-straight year after wrapping up SAC Tournament with a 39-13 overall record. The Evangels are ranked No. 18 in the NAIA Top 25 Coaches' Poll and own the 16th-best RPI in the NAIA and are ranked No. 4 in the NAIA's South ARC rating released on May 5.
It is the second consecutive year that the Evangels have been selected to the Shreveport bracket, last year advancing all the way to the Opening Round Championship game before falling to eventual NAIA National Champion LSU Shreveport in the title tilt.
The Evangels received the No. 2 seed and will start NAIA Opening Round play against No. 3 seed Loyola (La.) on Monday, May 11. All games will be played at Pilot Field with game times to be determined.
