Northwestern Picked to Win GPAC

Northwestern College with 134 points and seven first place votes is the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) baseball coaches’ choice to win the 2008 league title.  The Red Raiders, champions of NAIA Region III in 2007, are coming off a 37-18 campaign last spring.  Northwestern returns nine starters from last years team, catcher Codie Zeutenhorst (.299, 11 hr), first baseman Jake Jansen (.452, 52 rbi), second baseman Austin Malone (.328, 46 runs), shortstop Grant Wall (.411, GPAC Player-of-the-Year), centerfielder Matt Gray (.333), right fielder Curtis Bomgaars (.273), utility player Joe Heitritter (.336), and starting pitchers Joe Grady (5-6, 3.84 era) and Mihai Burlea (12-1, 3.06 era, GPAC Pitcher-of-the-Year, NAIA All-American Honorable Mention). The Red Raiders open up on Feb. 2nd in the Metrodome in Minneapolis versus Mount Mercy College of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Dakota Wesleyan was tabbed second, while Midland Lutheran was third in the poll.  The Tigers, Warriors, and fifth place Briar Cliff each received one first place vote, while Sioux Falls received three first place picks and was fourth in the balloting.

The GPAC baseball season will once again consist of 24 games and conclude with the GPAC Postseason Tournament on May 1-3 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, at Harmondon Park.  The NAIA Region III Tournament will be hosted by the Dakota Athletic Conference at a site to be determined.

Points were assigned on a 12-1 basis and coaches’ could not vote for their own team.

Here is the complete GPAC Baseball 2008 preseason coaches’ poll: