Baseball Ranked No. 7 in First ABCA Poll
CLU breaks into Top-10 in week one
CLU baseball is ranked No. 7 in the nation in the first ABCA Poll of the spring.
Photo: Tracy MapleALLENTOWN, Pa. –Announced on Tuesday by the American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball (ABCA) the Cal Lutheran Kingsmen have used an early 12-4 showing to jump three spots from the Preseason Poll in December, which ranked them No. 10, to the No. 7 slot in the first official NCAA Division III Poll of the spring.
After finishing the 2013 season ranked No. 12 in the final ABCA Poll of the year and leading the nation in multiple offensive categories, the Violet and Gold have proved to be just as powerful in 2014.
CLU is currently ranked 4th amongst all baseball programs in the country in doubles with 48, 11 of which have come off the bat of Jake Petersen, who is individually ranked second in the nation, three off the leader. Davey Casciola has recorded seven two-baggers thus far this spring to aid in the total. The Kingsmen have collected an average of 3.0 doubles per game to rank fifth as a team.
Cal Lutheran players have crossed the plate 141 times to rank 13th and their 8.8 runs per game puts them 23rd. Ramsey Abushahla leads the team with 22 runs scored, which is currently 17th in the country.
Additionally, Justin Caña is tied with a number of other players as the toughest batter to strike out while he has been hit eight times, which is eighth most of all players at the Division III level. Abushahla has drawn 16 walks to rank 16th while the national leader has 19 to date.
On a team that has layed down 17 sacrifice bunts, ranking 18th overall, freshman Austin Kay is responsible for six of those and is individually fourth among all players.
The senior pitching duo of Petersen and Aaron Roth has earned four victories and saves, respectively, to rank sixth and eighth among pitchers across the country. A pair of complete games from Scott Peters places the junior sixth in Division III at this juncture of the season.
Leading the Week One Poll is Linfield (Ore.) is 15-3 this year and received 10 first place votes. Trinity (Tex.) is second with an 18-1 mark and six first place votes and Kean (N.J.) rounds out the top three with an 11-2 record.
CLU is the only Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) team represented in the Top-30 release.
Cal Lutheran (12-4, 9-3 SCIAC) is off to the Tucson Tournament where the Kingsmen will play five games in four days against teams from the Midwest.
Release: ABCA Poll – Week One
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