WINGATE, N.C. - The National Collegiate Baseball Writers of America (NCBWA) announced the results of their final NCAA Division II Poll for the 2025 baseball season on Wednesday, with Northwest Nazarene ranked third in the country following their run at the DII College World Series.

National Champion Tampa tops the poll, followed by runner-up Central Missouri in second. Lenoir-Rhyne slots in behind NNU in fourth and UT Tyler rounds out the top five. 

The national No. 3 ranking is the highest in Northwest Nazarene baseball's 78-year history. The previous high of No. 6 was achieved in the final poll of 2021 following the Nighthawks' other DII College World Series appearance. 

NNU was receiving votes in the poll to begin the 2025 campaign, and broke into the top 25 for the first time on March 19. The Nighthawks never missed an NCBWA Top 25 the rest of the year, climbing as high as No. 13 during the regular season and No. 8 in the second-to-last poll that came after the conference championships on May 14. 

The 2025 NNU baseball squad had the best overall season of any Northwest Nazarene team, regardless of sport, in the school's 24-year NCAA Division II history. The Nighthawks finished the year with a record of 46-16, claiming the GNAC Regular Season Championship, GNAC Tournament Championship, and NCAA West Region Championship, and winning two games in Cary to advance farther than any NNU team at the DII Baseball Championships. The 46 wins shattered the previous program record of 36 and are also a GNAC record. The squad is also the first in Northwest Nazarene athletics history to reach an NCAA National Semifinal, with the previous high being a tie between the 2021 baseball team the 2022 men's soccer team that each finished in the final eight in the nation.