May 14, 2010

RedStorm earn No. 3 seed in NAIA Opening Round

Kansas City, Mo. --- Mid-South Conference Tournament Champion Rio Grande has learned where and who it will play in the NAIA Baseball National Championship Opening Round (formerly the NAIA Regional Tournament) next week.

Rio Grande (47-11) drew a No. 3 seed and will travel to Daytona Beach, Fla. and Embry-Riddle University's Sliwa Stadium. The RedStorm will square off with No. 2 seed Faulkner University (AL), who earned an at-large berth. 

Rio and Faulkner (39-19) are both first time participants at the NAIA National Tournament.

Embry-Riddle (41-16), the Sun Conference regular season and tournament champ, is the top seed of the group. 

Union (KY) College (38-16), an at-large team, is the No. 4 seed and St. Thomas (FL), the runner-up in the Sun Conference, is the No. 5 seed.

Rio Grande head coach Brad Warnimont is pleased to be a part of the tournament and now moves to the preparation stage in getting ready for the next opponent. "We're happy, our spring trip, we go to Daytona so we're familiar with the area, we've done that bus trip before, our kids are used to it and we're excited and we're playing Faulkner," Warnimont said. "So we're happy that we're not a four or five seed that we'd have to play in to get to a (No.) one."

"Now the wheels will start turning as far as pitching rotation and what we're going to do," he added.

The Rio-Faulkner match-up will be a preview to one of Rio's early season series in 2011. "They've given us a two-night lodging guarantee and a couple meals each day, so we're going to play them a four-game set early in the year," Warnimont said. "They've enticed us to come down and it will be a nice trip for us. This will be a nice lead-in for next year's four-game set."

Warnimont talked a little bit the opposition. "They play in a very competitive league, I'd imagine they're probably going to get a scouting report from Lee (University), because they're in that conference," he said. "They finished third, I think, in the regular season and I think they finished fifth in their conference tournament." 

"We'll try to find out some information on them and go from there," Warnimont added.

Game times are yet to be determined. The opening round runs from May 18-21.