2023 NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Preseason Poll
SEWARD, Neb. – After finishing the 2022 season situated just outside of the NAIA coaches’ poll, the Concordia University Baseball program will begin the 2023 campaign with a No. 21 national ranking. That’s where the Bulldogs were placed in the 2023 NAIA Baseball Coaches’ Top 25 Preseason Poll released on Wednesday (Nov. 2). This marks the eighth time over the past three seasons that Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s program has appeared in the top 25 of the official coaches’ poll.
Dupic, assistant coach Caleb Lang and the staff will welcome back 11 of the 12 players that earned all-conference honors in 2022. That group includes first-team honorees in second baseman Jay Adams, outfielder Joey Grabanski, third baseman Jaidan Quinn and starting pitchers Alex Johnson and Caden Johnson. Concordia finished last season at 40-17-1 overall while winning the GPAC tournament championship and coming within one victory of back-to-back trips to the NAIA World Series. Last year’s squad also broke program records for home runs (113) and runs cored (516) in a season.
Concordia’s all-time top 25 ratings are listed below. The highest ranking in program history was No. 12 following the 2021 run to the NAIA World Series. The ’21 team was ranked in every coaches’ poll from March 17 through the end of that season. While they didn’t break into the top 25, the 2018, 2019 and 2020 squads each received votes nationally at some point during the season. In eight seasons at the helm of the program, Dupic owns an overall record of 242-145-1 with five combined GPAC championships and four national tournament appearances.
Concordia Baseball all-time NAIA top 25 rankings
2023
Preseason – 21st
2022
Preseason – 18th
2021
March 17 – 24th
March 31 – 20th
April 14 – 22nd
April 28 – 20th
May 12 – 19th
Postseason – 12th