After recent victories in this year’s NAIA Opening Round competitions, the University of the Cumberlands baseball and softball teams are advancing to the final sites of the 2025 national championship tournaments.
The baseball Pats (48-10) are scheduled to play in their first game this Friday, May 23, against Hope International University out of California. The HIU Royals were crowned champions of the Great Southwest Athletic Conference earlier this season before coming out on top of their NAIA Opening Round mini-tournament in Lewiston, Idaho. Lewiston also serves as the final site for the NAIA National Tournament, so the team will be used to their surroundings when they suit up to play UC later this week.
Should the Patriots defeat Hope International, they will advance in the tournament winner’s bracket to face either Louisiana State University – Shreveport (54-0) or Grand View University (Iowa, 38-12). If they lose to Hope in round one, they will still have a chance to play their way out of the loser’s bracket between Saturday and Thursday of next week.
In the softball bracket, UC (40-7) will receive a first-round bye before facing off against the winners of Grand View (40-14) versus Midland University (Neb., 40-16) on Friday, May 23. If they win their first matchup, they would then advance to play either Oklahoma City University (50-9) or Central Methodist University (Mo., 41-9) on Saturday.
All games in this year’s NAIA Softball World Series will be contested in Columbus, Ga.
For additional information on the 2025 NAIA National Championship Tournaments, go online to www.naia.org. For more on all University of the Cumberlands Patriots athletics, visit www.cumberlandspatriots.com.
