The Northwestern College baseball team is back in the NAIA top 25 this week. The Red Raiders are 25-7 overall and ranked 24th in the latest poll and coach Brian Wede says the ranking could boost their post season hopes. Northwestern is currently third in the Great Plains Athletic Conference standings. “Our conference gets two automatic qualifiers, and then if you’re rate high enough you can qualify for an at-large,” Wede says. He says the conference could realistically get 3 bids.

Wede expects the conference race to be close the entire way. He says all the other teams are right on their heels and they have to be ready to play in every game.

Wede had high hopes coming into the season after the Red Raiders won the GPAC regular season and tournament titles last year. He says they have 9 seniors who played a lot last year, and they returned three of their four starters and the top bullpen guys, so they felt they had something special coming in. “To win 17 in a row like we did earlier in the year, those are hard things to expect,” Wede says.

Northwestern is 6-2 in the league race and visits second place Midland on Friday.