- On April 18th the College Baseball Foundation announced its 2025 watch list for the end of season Brooks Wallace Award honoring the nation’s top shortstop and it included both Beny Bikar of Southern University and Ahmar Denatto of Prairie View A&M.
- Earlier in the week, the same foundation named its 2025 watch list for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Award and it included Kameron Douglas, a P/OF from Alabama State.
- Also last week, the 2025 National Pitcher of the Year Award watch list was announced and it included Eric Elliott ofJackson State.
- This weekend, Norfolk State’s Justin Journette, the 2024 Black College Nines Large School Player of the Year, tied the school’s career home run record collecting his 35th of his collegiate career. It tied Mel Wearing’s school record which had been untouched for nearly 36 years since Wearing’s final college season in 1989.
- Cohen Boyd set three Xavier University of Louisiana modern-era game records and tied another Saturday at the University of the Southwest. Boyd, a junior left fielder, set records with two triples, four extra-base hits and 12 total bases, and he tied the XULA mark of seven RBIs.
- Talladega College’s Miguel Oropeza, 2024 Black College Nines Small School Player of the Year, continues to lead the NAIA nationally in batting with a hefty .531 average through 44 games and ranks fifth in RBI with 70. Gary Wafford of Huston-Tillotson hold down the ninth spot in hitting with a .455 average.
- In its weekend series finale versus HBCUAC foe Southern University at New Orleans, Wiley University’s Keyon Guillory (8-3) threw an eight inning complete game giving up one run on just two hits while striking out 14 batters.
- In the NCAA Division II, Kendal Spencer of Savannah State ranks eighth in hitting with an average of .451 and Elijah Pinckney from Morehouse College is eleventh, hitting .443.
- Division II leaders in stolen bases include three in the top ten… Sean Stewart of Clark Atlanta is third with 45, Dave Mitchum of Edward Waters is fourth with 43 and James Slaughter of Tuskegee is ninth with 35.
- Landon Keifer of Albany State ranks tenth in Division II with 88 strikeouts in 64.2 innings pitched, while Alexander Davila of Edward Waters is second in wins with a 10-1 record and Keifer is eighth with a winning record of 9-1.
- Five schools are ranked in the top eleven in Division II stolen bases. Tuskegee is first with a total of 187 thefts, Edward Waters is fourth with 179, Miles College is tied for fifth with 156 stolen bases, Clark Atlanta University ranks ninth with 139 and Savannah State is eleventh collecting a total of 133 stolen bases.
- In the NCAA Division I individually batting category, Cardell Thibodeaux ranks third nationally with a .452 batting average. Juan Cruz, from fellow SWAC member Alabama State, ranks twentieth with a .412 average. Thibodeaux and Damian Garcia of Texas Southern rank first and second in slugging percentage with averages of .919 and .905 respectively.
- Bryce Hughes of Texas Southern ranks third in the country in Division I stolen bases with 38 followed by Trey Rutledge of Alabama A&M in fourth with 32 and both Jeremy Ford of Alcorn State and Jordan McCladdie of Jackson State tied for fifth place with 31 stolen bases.
- Trey Rutledge and Cardell Thibodeaux rank first and second nationally in on base percentage with averages of .571 and .561 respectively.
- Kyle Walker, a Black College Nines first team All-Elite in 2024 at Grambling State University, is currently ranked second on the Arizona State University squad with a total of.359 batting average.
Florida Memorial currently is ranked #1 in strength of schedule in Boyd Nation’s Iterative Strength Rating; http://boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/naia_isr.html
and they have been at that level off and on for the past three weeks. They are in the same conference as Webber International, currently ranked #6, Southeastern, ranked #8, and Keiser, ranked #25.