CHARLOTTE, N.C. (www.BigSouthSports.com) – For the first time since 2007, Winthrop University has been voted the Big South Conference’s preseason baseball favorite by the league’s head coaches, it was announced today by the conference office. In addition, the coaches voted Liberty junior outfielder D.J. Artis (Greensboro, N.C.) the Conference’s Preseason Player of the Year and Winthrop junior Nate Pawelczyk (Pompano Beach, Fla.) the league’s Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
The Eagles, last year’s regular-season champion, received six first-place votes and 95 total points to win the league in 2018. WU is coming off a 34-24 season in 2017 and won the Big South with a 17-7 conference mark. Winthrop, which is ranked No. 28 nationally in the 2018 Collegiate Baseball Preseason Poll, welcomes back seven overall starters, 11 position players and 11 pitchers this season.
Liberty received two first-place votes and was second in the preseason poll with 81 points — its highest position in the preseason ranking since being voted the favorite in 2015. High Point was picked third with 77 points (one first-place vote), just ahead of defending Big South champion Radford (fourth with 76 points and the remaining first-place vote). Campbell was fifth with 55 points, with Presbyterian College in the sixth spot with 47 points. Gardner-Webb landed in the seventh position (36 points), Charleston Southern garnered eighth-place (35 points), followed by UNC Asheville (ninth, 26 points) and Longwood (10th, 22 points).
Artis is the second Liberty player to be voted the Big South’s Preseason Player of the Year in the award’s 13-year history, as Alex Close was the first in 2015. A 2018 preseason All-American, Artis was the 2017 Big South Player of the Year and earned All-America honors from D1baseball.com (Second-Team), Baseball America (Third-Team) and the NCBWA (Third-Team) last season. The two-time First-Team All-Big South honoree finished 2017 second in the nation with a .532 on-base percentage and as the national leader in walks with 62. In addition, he led the Big South Conference with a .359 batting average and 58 runs scored, while finishing second with 23 stolen bases. Artis received eight first-place votes and 25 points in the preseason voting to finish ahead of Gardner-Webb’s Chandler Redmond, who placed second with eight points.
Pawelczyk was a First-Team All-Big South selection in 2017 and was the Runner-Up for the postseason Pitcher of the Year award. He was the league’s leader in earned run average (2.23) and opposing batting average (.192), tied for first in wins (7), and was second in fewest earned runs allowed (19), third in fewest hits allowed (53) and had a team-high 69 strikeouts in 76.2 innings pitched. In Big South games, Pawelczyk went 4-2 with a 3.00 ERA and 36 strikeouts in 48.0 innings. He received seven first-place votes and 26 total points in this year’s preseason voting, ahead of Presbyterian’s Eric Miles (15 points and one first-place vote), and marks the third-straight year a Winthrop hurler was tabbed as the Big South’s top pitcher entering the season.
The 2018 Big South baseball season begins Friday, Feb. 16, while the first conference meeting is set for the weekend of March 16-18. The 2018 Big South Baseball Championship is slated for May 22-26, and the eight-team postseason tournament will be played at the Liberty Baseball Stadium on the campus of Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.
2018 Big South Conference Preseason Baseball Poll
Rk Team (first-place votes) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Points
1. Winthrop (6) 6 3 1 – – – – – – – 95
2. Liberty (2) 2 1 4 2 1 – – – – – 81
3. High Point (1) 1 2 2 3 2 – – – – – 77
4. Radford (1) 1 2 2 3 1 1 – – – – 76
5. Campbell – – 1 2 2 4 – – – 1 55
6. Presbyterian College – 1 – – 2 1 5 – – 1 47
7. Gardner-Webb – – – – 2 1 – 5 2 – 36
8. Charleston Southern – 1 – – – 1 3 1 2 2 35
9. UNC Asheville – – – – – 1 1 3 3 2 26
10. Longwood – – – – – 1 1 1 3 4 22
Note: points are based on a weighted system, with first-place votes receiving 10 points, followed by 9 points for second-place, and so on.
