Semifinal finish at NCBA DI National Championships earns Lopes highest national ranking ever

By: Jim Howell/GCU Club Sports Information Director

GCU Club Sports is proud to announce that the Grand Canyon University Club Baseball team is ranked 3rd in the final National Club Baseball Association (NCBA) Division I Poll.  It’s the highest ranking the Lopes have ever received after moving up one spot from the No. 4 ranking they earned in late May.  The Lopes were a part of the NCBA Top 10 six times this season, and it’s the 7th time that the Lopes have been in the 2018 national poll in just their second year at the Division I level.

The top-3 national ranking is the final jewel in a season of firsts for the program.  In just their second year of action on the Division 1 level, the Lopes won an NCBA Southern Pacific (SoPac) South Conference title for the first time ever in late April.  Three weeks later, they took the difficult route of winning their first NCBA SoPac Regional Championship by losing the first game in the double-elimination tournament, then winning four straight over the next 27 hours.  Finally, they were the only team in the eight-team field at the NCBA DI World Series making their first tournament appearance, yet shot their way to the semifinals with back-to-back wins before finishing 3rd in the nation.

The entire final NCBA Rankings are listed below: