Fayette, Mo. – The icing on the cake for another impressive Central Methodist University season came with a #25 ranking in the final National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) coaches' poll.

The "cake" came in the form of a 42-17 season, a second consecutive appearance in the NAIA national tournament, 11 players named to the Heart of America Athletics Conference all-conference team, a Southern Division title in the HEART, and the runner-up position in the league.

"An exciting season for our program and institution," Eagle's Head Coach Nate Breland noted. My coaching staff did an outstanding job jelling and preparing our players to compete. We knew it was going to be an important year after winning 44 games the previous year and losing 18 seniors. I was proud of the group of 21 newcomers and five returners for coming together and buying into the system."

The Eagles climbed up to #5 in the NAIA national poll for two weeks, the highest in program history, before a late-season slump slowed things.

"We did not play our best baseball in the last few weeks, but posted a very strong year," Breland said.

CMU spent 14 weeks in the NAIA rankings. They were especially tough at home, winning 21 of 23 games, but had a winning record on the road and at neutral sites as well. Breland won't face quite the rebuilding job he did a year ago, with eight seniors on his 2017 roster. But as he and his team proved this season, it isn't the number of newcomers, it's how quickly they buy into the system.

"This group broke through a lot of barriers this year and have raised the bar for years to come," Breland said.