Kansas Wesleyan Baseball is ranked No. 12 in the NAIA Baseball Preseason Top 25 as announced by the NAIA National Office on Wednesday.
The Coyotes are coming off one of the best seasons in program history as the Coyotes went 48-12 a year ago, setting program records for overall wins and with a 32-4 record in the KCAC play, also setting a new conference record for conference wins in a season.Head Coach Bill Neale returns for his 11th season in 2025. He is the all-time wins leader in program history with 311 wins, picking up his 311th career win and 300th win at KWU last season.
The Coyotes will open the 2025 season on January 24, heading to Louisiana to take on Louisiana Christian in a doubleheader in Pineville, then taking on LSU-Alexandria in a doubleheader on January 25 in Alexandria. The home portion of the schedule begins the following weekend as KWU welcomes William Penn on January 31 and USAO on February 1.
Tennessee Wesleyan begins the 2024-25 campaign as the preseason favorite in the NAIA Baseball Coaches' Top 25, narrowly edging out the reigning champions from Hope International (Calif.) The Bulldogs take four first-place votes, the Royals are awarded 11 and Georgia Gwinnett, who is ranked third, earns the final two. LSU Shreveport (La.) and Cumberlands (Ky.) round out the top five.
Rating Methodology
- The rating was voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the conferences.
- The Top 25 is determined by a points system based on how each rater ranks the best teams. A team receives 30 points for each first-place vote, 29 for second-place and so on through the list.
- The highest and lowest ranking for each team (a non-rating is considered a low rating) is removed and the team's ranking will be recalculated with an additional point added to each team for every ballot (including discounted ballots) that the teams appear on.
- Teams that receive only one point on the ballot are not considered "receiving votes"