FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
MINNEAPOLIS – Salisbury University baseball moved up eight spots to No. 1 in the first regular-season D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Top 25 poll. This is the first time that the SU baseball program has ever been ranked No. 1.
Salisbury (9-0) received 16 first-place votes out of 25 and received 605 points. The Sea Gulls jumped eight places from their preseason poll spot after posting quality wins over previous No. 1 SUNY Cortland, Virginia Wesleyan College and North Carolina Wesleyan College to start the season undefeated. The Gulls most impressive victory of the season to date was the 4-3 victory on February 20 against Cortland. The game featured a pair of preseason All-American pitchers in Cortland’s Matt Tone (second team) and Salisbury’s Eric Willey (honorable mention).
“We are very happy and excited about being ranked No. 1. Hopefully we will work even harder. We have a lot of excellent programs on this campus that have been ranked No. 1 and have won national championships and we want to follow their lead,” said SU coach Doug Fleetwood.
Trinity (Conn.), the reigning national champions, moved up one spot to No. 2 at it received seven first-place votes and 566 points. University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (No. 3) received the final two first-place votes and 495 points. Johns Hopkins University (489 points) and University of Texas-Tyler (473 points) round out of the top five. Previous No. 1 SUNY Cortland (1-3) and No. 2 Chapman (6-4) fell out of the top 10 as both squads suffered several losses to start the season.
Salisbury will get the chance to take on two more teams in the Top 25 this season plus a team that received votes in this week’s poll. The Gulls will have travel to No. 20 Christopher Newport on April 24 and then host the Captains the next day April 25 at Sea Gull Field. On April 28, Salisbury will travel to Baltimore and matchup against No. 4 Johns Hopkins. The maroon and gold will close out their regular-season on May 6 with home contest against Montclair State which received votes in this week’s poll.
“We have a difficult schedule ahead and it will be a major undertaking for the rest of the season,” said Fleetwood. “As I told the kids it is great to be ranked No. 1 on February 24 but we want to still be No. 1 come Memorial Day weekend.”
Salisbury will debut its No. 1 ranking tomorrow (Wednesday, February 25) in Dover, Del., as the Sea Gulls head up Route 13 for a contest against Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) rival Wesley College at 2:30 p.m. The Gulls will then host the Wolverines in a doubleheader on Saturday, February 28, at 1 p.m.
Rk School (first) Last Rec. Pts
1 Salisbury (16) 9 9-0 605
2 Trinity (Conn.) (7) 3 0-0 566
3 UW-Whitewater (2) 4 0-0 495
4 Johns Hopkins 5 0-0 489
5 Texas-Tyler 12 8-1 473
6 Adrian 6 0-0 461
7 Kean 7 2-0 433
8 Heidelberg 8 0-0 406
9 Southern Maine 10 0-0 378
10 Wooster 11 0-0 328
11 Chapman 2 6-4 326
12 Eastern Connecticut 13 0-0 304
13 Cortland State 1 1-3 300
14 St. Scholastica 15 1-0 280
15 Linfield 14 3-1 263
16 Millsaps – 11-1 206
17 Illinois Wesleyan 16 0-0 204
18 Marietta 17 0-0 195
19 Wheaton (Mass.) 19 0-0 163
20 Christopher Newport – 6-0-1 161
21 Cal Lutheran – 8-0 156
22 St. Thomas 18 0-0 151
23 Lynchburg 20 7-3 118
24 Thiel 21 0-0 100
25 UW-Oshkosh 23 0-0 89
Dropped Out: Augustana, Carthage, RPI
Others receiving votes: RPI 64, Augustana 62, Webster 56, Carthage 55, Rowan 21, Keene State 20, Emory 20, Rhodes 20, Pacific Lutheran 20, New Jersey 18, Trinity (Texas) 17, Calvin 14, St. Olaf 11, McMurry 9, Piedmont 8, La Verne 8, Transylvania 8, Ithaca 8, UW-Stevens Point 7, William Paterson 5, Ohio Wesleyan 3, Ferrum 3, Wheaton (Ill.) 3, Penn State-Behrend 2, Redlands 2, Montclair State 2, DePauw 2, Beloit 2, Hardin-Simmons 2, Wartburg 1, Pomona-Pitzer 1, Ripon 1
