KANSAS CITY, Mo. – After going a perfect 4-0 in winning the Southern States Athletic Conference Tournament championship last week, the Southern Polytechnic State University baseball team rose to ninth nationally after receiving 413 points in the final regular season NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll that was released on Thursday.

Southern Polytechnic earned 326 points for 14th place in last week's NAIA national coaches' poll after claiming 306 points for No. 15 on April 22. Southern Poly was ranked 17th with 255 points the week before and was No. 30 with 46 points on April 8. The Hornets came in at 31st (35 points) on April 1, No. 30 (68 points) on March 25 and were also 17th (225 points) in the preseason rating that was announced on Nov. 12, 2013.

The NAIA coaches' polls are voted upon by a panel of head coaches representing each of the NAIA conferences, independents and unaffiliated groups. The entire poll can be viewed naia.org.

Oklahoma Baptist University remained atop of the most recent poll with 560 points, 19 first-place votes and a 50-6 overall record and is followed by Lewis-Clark State College, which collected 540 points, one first-place vote and is 43-7 overall. Oklahoma Wesleyan University (517 points, 52-6 overall) is third, ahead of defending national champion Faulkner University (498 points, 46-14) and Kentucky's Georgetown College (497, 41-8).

Along with SPSU and Faulkner, other SSAC members in the rating are No. 13 Brewton-Parker College (324 points, 32-11 overall) and No. 26 Belhaven University (120, 40-19).

Southern Poly, which has won 18 of its last 20 contests, is 42-16 overall. The Hornets begin play at an NAIA National Championship Opening Round site on Monday.