LCSC baseball drops a spot in this week’s rankings

There weren’t many surprises Wednesday when the NAIA coaches top 25 baseball poll was released. The top six teams in the ranking remained relatively the same, except for a swap between a pair of teams.

Unsurprisingly, that swap came between Lewis-Clark State and LSU Shreveport. The Warriors slipped a spot in the poll from No. 3 to No. 4, and the Pilots moved up a spot.

LCSC (35-3) clearly lost a little confidence in the eyes of the balloters this week thanks to a split of a four-game Cascade Conference series against Corban at the University of Portland’s Joe Etzel Field. To some observers, that could have been a surprise. To others, maybe not so much because of the capability of Corban’s pitching staff.

The Warriors hope what happened in Oregon doesn’t portend to what could happen in five to seven weeks time, when the program will host an Opening Round tournament at Harris Field. For the first time since the adaptation of the first round in 2009, LCSC will have to play its way into the Avista NAIA World Series. As most know, anything can happen come postseason time.

Once again, Southeastern (Fla) and Tennessee Wesleyan are the top two teams in the poll. The Fire (34-1) gathered all 19 first-place votes and remains in the No. 1 position. The Bulldogs (36-2) are at No. 2.

Oklahoma City (30-3) remained at No. 5, with Westmont (Calif.) (35-6) staying at No. 6.

Defending national champion Georgia Gwinnett (24-9) continued its drop in the poll, going from No. 8 to No. 11 this week.

McPherson (Kan.) (26-7) was the biggest mover, rocketing up from No. 19 to No. 13. Stock down, other than teams who were left out of the top 25, is Ottawa (Kan.) (27-5) and Webber International (Fla.) (30-11), which each fell five spots.

Again, the Sun seems to be the dominant conference this season. They have four teams in the poll. Besides Southeastern and Webber International, St. Thomas (Fla.) (No. 7) and Warner (Fla.) (No. 15) are in this week.

Players, team in the national rankings

Senior outfielder Sam Linscott and senior shortstop Riley Way still dot the top of the charts in several offensive categories.

Linscott is tied for fourth with 50 runs scored, and Way is tied for eighth with 48. Linscott is fourth with 63 hits, Way is 12th with 59. The two are tied for seventh with 16 doubles.

Senior first baseman Luke White is tied for ninth with 13 home runs and he is 10th with 52 RBI.

Junior right-hander Trent Sellers is tied for seventh with eight victories, ninth with a 1.24 earned-run average and tied for 11th with 77 strikeouts.

The team is first in the nation in doubles (115), tied for third in RBI (344), fourth in runs scored (374) and hits (440), ninth in batting average (.335), and 10th in home runs (52) and slugging percentage (.554). Pitching-wise, the team is second in ERA (2.79), fifth with 370 strikeouts and 10th with 319 innings pitched. In the field, the Warriors are tied for fourth with 30 double plays turned and eighth with a .971 fielding percentage.

Warriors not following the crowd

All the rage throughout baseball the past few weeks has been the emergence of technology in calling pitches, with MLB and many Division I college programs using digital wristbands to find out the type of pitch to throw next and where to locate it.

Just don’t expect the Warrior program to be using this technology, at least the rest of this season.

With the majors approving Tuesday allowing teams to use the PitchCom Pitcher Catcher Communication Device and numerous colleges using Game Day Signals for the same thing, LCSC will call pitches the old-fashioned way: via the dugout to the catcher, who will relay the sign through finger signs.

In the majors in particular, sign stealing became prevalent in recent years. In particular, the Houston Astros were penalized for using a camera and banging a trash can to alert their batters to pitch types during their run to the 2017 World Series title.

In college baseball, catchers traditionally have looked into the dugout to pick up pitch signs from a coach, then relay them with another set of finger and hand signs. In 2018, the NCAA allowed catchers to have an earpiece in their helmets to get pitch calls from a coach using a walkie-talkie or clip-on microphone.

Tradition is the way to go, particularly in the case of LCSC, because the cost might be a bit high. At the same time, don’t mess with success.

“We do not utilize that system and don’t foresee moving to it in the near future,” coach Jake Taylor said recently. “We will call pitches from the dugout or have our catcher call his own game. Each program is different in how they do it. As long as it is quick and accurate they all work.”

Coming up

LCSC continues its eight-game road trip with a four-game conference series tentatively starting at 2 p.m. Friday at Eastern Oregon. The Warriors return home for a four-game conference set at 6 p.m. April 15 against College of Idaho, then hit the road once more for a four-game series starting with an 11 a.m. doubleheader April 23 at Oregon Tech.

Walden may be reached at (208) 848-2258, dwalden@lmtribune.com, or on Twitter @waldo9939.