Photo: UMHB baseball celebrates after completing its sweep of Schreiner on Saturday (Photo by Bob Sanford)
BELTON–For the first time since the 2009 season, UMHB baseball is a Top 25 team.
The Cru, who received votes in last week’s D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 Poll but were unranked, broke into this week’s rankings at No. 20, with 118 points from the panel of 25 voters. It is two spots back from the highest ranking in program history, when UMHB found itself slotted at No. 18 during the 2008 season.
The achievement comes on the heels of a series sweep of Schreiner in Belton over the weekend, which was preceded by a key non-conference road win over Trinity (TX), who moved up five spots in this week’s poll to No. 12. UMHB is 13-1 overall, and 5-1 in American Southwest conference play.
The 13-1 start is the program’s best record over the first 14 games of a season since UMHB joined Division III in 1999. The Crusaders are also 9-0 at home, and have swept three of their four weekend series thus far, taking down Austin College, Concordia, and Schreiner. A 2-1 series win on the road at Howard Payne two weeks ago also contributed to the strong start for head coach Mike Stawski’s squad.
UMHB, who did not reach the ASC Tournament a year ago and was picked to finish sixth in the league’s 2024 preseason poll, is now one of the hottest teams in the country. Only seven other teams currently ranked in the Top 25 poll currently have one or fewer losses, and amongst those eight programs, UMHB is the only team to have played 14 games. The other seven have all played fewer, including three whose records include six games or less.
The Crusaders resume non-conference play on Wednesday in Belton, hosting Whittier College at 2:30 p.m. at Red Murff Field. UMHB then welcomes McMurry to Belton for a three-game series starting with a 6 p.m. contest on Friday followed by a Saturday doubleheader. McMurry is 7-8 overall and comes off a 13-5 win over No. 25 UW-Whitewater in Pensacola, Florida on Monday.
