Baseball Picked To Finish Third In Preseason Poll
Trinity University has been tabbed as the favorite to take home the 2025 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference baseball title, based on preseason balloting from the league’s head coaches while the Diamond Gents were picked third.
SUWANEE, Ga. - Trinity University has been tabbed as the favorite to take home the 2025 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference baseball title, based on preseason balloting from the league's head coaches.
Entering the 2025 season, the SCAC will feature 11 teams, the most since the 2012 season.
Trinity, who has advanced to five-straight NCAA tournaments and holds an SCAC record 13 baseball titles (last in 2023), garnered seven first-place votes to top the coaches' poll with 112 points. Concordia (Texas), which enters its first year as a member of the SCAC, received three first-place votes and finished second in the preseason rankings with 100 total points. The Tornados won 14 of their final 16 games down the stretch, including four straight at the 2024 ASC Tournament, and punched their ticket into last year's NCAA Tournament. Defending SCAC Tournament champions, Centenary, earned 98 votes to finish third in the preseason balloting. The Gents have won two of the last three SCAC Tournament titles and three since 2017.
Southwestern and Texas Lutheran landed in a tie for fourth in the preseason poll with 84 points apiece. The Pirates have won 20 or more games in three consecutive seasons for the first time since 2005, while the Bulldogs are coming off their fifth SCAC Tournament Championship final appearance in the last six tournaments with a runner-up finish in 2024. SCAC debutant McMurry, received the final first-place vote to finish sixth.
St. Thomas, which posted double-digit conference wins last year for the second time in three years, was slotted in seventh with 60 points. Schreiner collected 33 points and landed in eighth on the preseason poll. The third of the league's trio of new schools, University of the Ozarks produced its highest win total last year since 2021 and received 32 points and finished ninth in the poll.
Rounding out the coaches' selections were Dallas, which posted its most conference wins last year since 2013, with 29 points in 10th and Austin College, which secured double-digit wins for the first time since 2017, finished 11th with 23 points.
Trinity opens the 2025 campaign ranked 17th in the D3baseball.com Preseason Top 25 poll, after securing its 12th 30-plus win season since 2010. The Tigers, who return two of their top three batters in terms of hits from a season ago in senior Nicholas Lazzara and sophomore Kaleb Woodward, will lean into an offensive attack that paced the SCAC in doubles (98), home runs (38), RBI (287), runs scored (315) and walks (220) a year ago. Trinity has led the SCAC in both doubles and walks for three consecutive seasons. Lazzara and Woodward, both Honorable Mention All-SCAC selections last year, combined for 92 hits and an impressive .332 batting average. In addition, the duo combined for 62 RBI, 56 runs scored, 18 doubles, 13 stolen bases and eight home runs.
Trinity is led by Head Coach Tim Scannell, who will begin his 27th season in charge of the baseball program. The Tigers have amassed a record of 800-308 (.722) over 26 seasons with Coach Scannell at the helm. He is ranked in the top 10 among active NCAA Division III coaches by winning percentage, and his squads have qualified for the NCAA Playoffs 16 times, including the 2024 campaign. Trinity posted a string of seven consecutive NCAA Tournaments from 2010-2016, and the Tigers have advanced to the regional finals eight times in Scannell's tenure: 2002, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2022 and 2023.
The 2025 SCAC baseball season begins on February 7th, while the first conference series of the year are scheduled for Friday, February 14th. The 2025 SCAC Baseball Tournament will be held in May at Dell Diamond Park in Round Rock, Texas as the double-elimination tournament will begin on Friday the 2nd.
| 2025 SCAC Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll (first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points) |
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| 1. | Trinity University (7) | 112 |
| 2. | Concordia Univesrity (Texas) (3) | 100 |
| 3. | Centenary College | 98 |
| 4. | Southwestern University | 84 |
| Texas Lutheran University | 84 | |
| 6. | McMurry University (1) | 71 |
| 7. | University of St. Thomas | 60 |
| 8. | Schreiner University | 33 |
| 9. | University of the Ozarks | 32 |
| 10. | University of Dallas | 29 |
| 11. | Austin College | 23 |
