Gents Picked Third In SCAC Baseball Preseason Poll

*Release courtsey of the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference*

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - After combining to win the last three SCAC Tournament Championships, Texas Lutheran University and Trinity University finished in a deadlock for the top spot of the 2022 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Baseball Preseason Poll in the annual balloting among league head coaches.

During that time the two programs have combined to win 219 games while making five NCAA Tournament appearances with 11 NCAA Tournament wins. The Bulldogs and Tigers each earned 59 total points, including four first place votes apiece, to sit tied atop the preseason poll.

The defending SCAC tournament champions, Texas Lutheran went 30-14 a year ago, including a 15-3 mark in league play, and made its third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Bulldogs, who have won two of the last three SCAC Tournaments and open the 2022 season ranked 28th in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25 poll, return four First Team All-SCAC performers from a season ago led by sophomore designated hitter Tyler Post. Post, a 2021 First Team American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) All-West Region honoree, hit .336 last year with 51 hits, 41 RBI, 13 doubles, and 11 home runs en route to being named First Team All-Conference. Joining Post in the lineup as returning First Team honorees are juniors Joe Jimenez at shortstop and Randy Huerta at third base. That duo combined for 80 hits, 80 runs scored, 70 RBI, 17 home runs and 19 stolen bases. Both Jimenez and Huerta were named Third Team All-ABCA All-West Region performers a year ago.

On the mound, junior right-hander Joe Burch, is the fourth First Team All-League performer from last year's squad to return in 2022. Burch led the Bulldogs' staff in nearly every pitching statistic including wins (7), starts (11), strikeouts (62), complete games (4) and innings pitched (67.2). He finished the year with an impressive 3.86 ERA.

Leading TLU in 2022 will be Rick Hines, who enters his second year as head coach and 10th overall with the program after serving eight seasons as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator and associate head coach from 2018-2020. 

Trinity opens the 2022 campaign ranked 15th in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25 poll, after posting a 28-9 overall record last season and making its 13th NCAA appearance since 2002. The Tigers return three players selected All-Region by the ABCA and D3baseball.com, including two First Team All-SCAC performers in senior catcher Tyler Pettit and senior infielder Jack Wisniewski. Both were name First Team All-Region by D3baseball.com, while Pettit was also chosen for the ABCA Third Team in the West Region. Rounding out the trio of All-Region returnees is junior outfielder Brian Schaub, who was a First Team selection for the ABCA and earned Second Team All-SCAC honors. Pettit, Wisniewski and Schaub combined for 42.4 percent of the Tigers home runs (19), 38.5 percent of the RBI (126), 30.3 percent of the runs scored (108) and 29.3 percent of the team's hits (130) last season.

Trinity is led by Head Coach Tim Scannell, who will begin his 24th season in charge of the baseball program. He has won more than 700 games in his 23 seasons as the Tiger skipper, and his career winning percentage of 72.6 percent ranks him in the top 10 among active coaches in Division III.

Centenary College, which is one of three different SCAC programs to earn an NCAA bid since 2017, rounds out the top three in the preseason rankings after securing 44 total points. The Gents, who strung together a program-best 18-game winning streak last season and are coming off their first 30-win season since 2017, will be led by a pair of First Team All-SCAC performers from a year ago in senior Preston Ludwick and junior Parker Primeaux. Ludwick, the reigning SCAC Pitcher-of-the-Year and First Team honoree at first base was named to both the 2021 ABCA All-West Region First Team and D3baseball.com All-West Region Second Team. Last year he went 8-2 on the mound with a 4.09 ERA and led the SCAC in wins (8), strikeouts (77), and limited opponents to just a .189 batting average. Offensively, he collected a team-high 65 hits, 49 RBI and led the Gents with a .404 batting average. Primeaux landed on the All-SCAC First Team as a relief pitcher and returns this season as Centenary's primary closer after also earning ABCA All-West Second Team honors in 2021. He led all of Division III with 10 saves and posted the second-best ERA in the SCAC with a mark of 3.22. He made a team-high 27 appearances, posting a 3-4 record on the mound in 64.1 innings of work, allowing just 56 hits and 23 earned runs.

Southwestern University checks in at fourth in the preseason rankings with 42 points as the Pirates have posted three-straight .500 or better seasons for the first time since 2003-2005. Southwestern welcomes back 2021 SCAC Newcomer-of-the-Year sophomore Maxwell Mims and First Team All-SCAC pitcher, junior Travis Harvey. Mims burst on to the scene a year ago and led all first-year players in SCAC play with a .418 batting average, 45 total bases, 28 hits, 24 runs scored and 10 stolen bases. The left-hander Harvey returns after leading the Pirates in strikeouts (51) a season ago and posting a 4-2 record with a 4.64 ERA in 42.2 innings of work. 

University of St. Thomas lands in the fifth position with 29 total points and opens in a new era of coaching with the hiring of David Wood. Wood will lean heavily on a trio of returning Honorable Mention All-SCAC honorees from a season ago in juniors Kyle Bearden and Jason Brown and senior Caleb Edmonds. Bearden, Brown, and Edmonds helped lift the Celts to their first winning season in program history in 2021 after combining for 117 hits, 93 runs scored, 74 RBI, 25 stolen bases and eight home runs.

Following its most SCAC wins since the 2016 season with eight last year, the University of Dallas was selected to finish sixth in this year's preseason poll with 26 points. Head Coach Erik Grafton enters his fourth season with the program as the Crusaders return three All-SCAC performers from last year, led by Second Team relief pitcher, Ethan Mann. Mann posted the lowest ERA of any Dallas pitcher last season to throw more than 10 innings at 3.48 and finished the year with a team-best three wins after working 20.2 total innings of work.

Schreiner University, led by Honorable Mention All-SCAC performer Devin Hooper who finished tied for third in hits last year for the Mountaineers with 42 and added 25 RBI and 18 runs scored, earned 21 total points to finish seventh in the preseason rankings.

Austin College rounds out the 2022 baseball coaches' preseason poll with eight points. The 'Roos welcome back Honorable Mention All-SCAC honoree Jake Webster, who led the team with a .352 batting average and 20 runs scored last season.

The 2022 SCAC baseball season begins on February 4th, while the first conference series of the year are scheduled for Friday, March 18th. The 2022 SCAC Baseball Tournament will be held in May at The Depot at Cleburne Station as the double-elimination tournament will begin on Friday the 6th.