SPRINGFIELD, IL – The University of Illinois Springfield (UIS) baseball team was tabbed with its first-ever national ranking.
 
There are three major national polls associated with NCAA Division II baseball. The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (CBN) announced its poll on Monday while Perfect Game Sports and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) released its polls on Wednesday.
 
Perfect Game handed the Prairie Stars (17-4) their highest ranking, selecting the Prairie Stars as the No. 19-ranked team in the nation. UIS was also tabbed with a No. 25 ranking in the latest NCBWA poll. The NCBWA also provides Division II regional rankings, which the Prairie Stars received a T-3 ranking in the Midwest Region. UIS is also receiving votes in the latest CBN national poll.
 
"Any time your players and coaches work so hard towards a common goal, it is always nice to be recognized for that," UIS coach Chris Ramirez said. "Last year, we felt like we had one of the top teams in the region at the end of the season, but it took us the first 20 games to find our stride. This year, our guys have done a good job of taking care of business heading into GLVC play."
 
PERFECT GAME FEATURE
Each week when Perfect Game Sports releases its poll, it includes a feature on a selected NCAA Division II team and UIS was chosen for the feature this week. The content is listed below:
 
"A new team was added to the D-II rankings mix as the University of Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars made their Perfect Game Top 25 debut. Their inclusion comes on the heels of UIS' nine-game winning streak, which has been punctuated with a pair of shutout wins. Had it not been for an unfortunate ninth-inning error, the Prairie Stars may be riding an amazing 17-game winning streak as they've only lost one contest since dropping their first three.
 
The pitching for UIS has been flat-out phenomenal. Last season the staff finished the year with a stout 4.85 team ERA. This year the total has been half that with opposition only averaging 2.33 earned runs per nine innings. It's no wonder that teams are having a hard time scoring against them, they're hardly getting on base. The staff is holding batters to a dainty .190 batting average and has fanned far more batters (188) than hits allowed 119.
 
While several players have been upping their game, a big reason for UIS' dramatic pitching improvement has been the addition of Justin Revels and Andrew Dean to the rotation. Revels, who began his career at Grand Canyon, has only allowed three earned runs in his five starts and has a sub 1.00 WHIP with his 0.93 ERA. Dean, who also formerly played D-I ball at Texas Southern, is putting up similar numbers. In his last outing, a complete game road shutout against Rockhurst, he was still reaching the 90s with his fastball.
 
The team is batting .318 with Nick Stokowski and Michael Rothmund looking like All Americans in the making. Stokowski is topping the team with a .419 batting average, and the 6-foot-6, 250-pound behemoth Rothmund – who was named one of D-II's top professional prospects prior to the start of the season – is nearly hitting .400 himself, batting .392 and leading the team in slugging (.797) and on-base percentage (.495).
 
Illinois Springfield travels to Southern Indiana this week and will try to keep the slumping perennial power under .500. In two weeks will be UIS' biggest test of the season when they welcome Indianapolis and battle to control the GLVC East standings."
 
NCAA DIVISION II RANKINGS
The full NCAA Division II rankings for each poll is included with each link listed below:
Perfect Game Sports (Link)
National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (Link)
Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (Link)
 
UP NEXT
UIS takes on the University of Southern Indiana (7-9) in a four-game Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) series this weekend. The two teams engage in a pair of 12 p.m. doubleheaders in Evansville, IN on Saturday and Sunday.