Monks Ranked 14th in D3baseball.com Preseason Poll

STANDISH, ME - The 2013 D3baseball.com Preseason Poll has been released and Saint Joseph's College has been ranked 14th in the nation. The Monks received the same national ranking in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Preseason Poll earlier this month

Saint Joseph's returns four starting pitchers, including senior righthander Chad Rafferty(Keene, N.H.), a 2013 D3baseball.com First Team Preseason All-America selection, and seven starting position players, including 2012 All-New England honorees Brandon Chase (Naples, Maine) and Nic Lops (South Portland, Maine/Cheverus), from a squad that went 39-7 overall and 14-2 in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play a year ago.

Other top returning hitters include sophomore catcher Joe Coyne (Duxbury, Mass.), junior outfielder Alex Lorenc (Nanuet, N.Y.), senior outfielder Sam Butts (Saco, Maine), junior utility man Alex Markakis (Lynnfield, Mass.) and senior first baseman Mike Pratt (Dartmouth, Mass.).

The list of returning arms also includes seniors Tyler Laverriere (Biddeford, Maine) andJimmy Kennedy (York, Maine), juniors Joe Gruntkosky (Peabody, Mass.) and Nick Whittaker (Yarmouth, Maine) and sophomore Alex Valenti (Lawrence, Mass.).

The 2012 campaign was one of the most successful seasons in Saint Joseph's athletics history, as the baseball team broke the institution's single-season record for victories and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the sixth time in the last seven seasons under the watch of Head Coach Will Sanborn '86 last spring.

As the top seed in the conference tourney, the Monks claimed the GNAC Championship - the club's seventh conference crown in the last eight years - and, as the #2 seed in the 2012 New England NCAA Regional, proceeded to defeat #7 Bowdoin College and #4 Keene State College in regional action.

Coach Sanborn (542-295-5, .648) became the winningest coach in Saint Joseph's history during the 2012 campaign and the Monks' .848 winning percentage was the second-highest in all of NCAA Baseball – all three divisions – last season. St. Joe's was ranked nationally for the majority of the year and capped the season listed 14th in the nation in the final Collegiate Baseball and D3baseball.com polls.

Saint Joseph's is among several New England programs to be ranked in the D3baseball.com Preseason Poll. Wheaton College, which won the New England Regional and fell to Marietta in the NCAA DIII National Championship a year ago, enters the season ranked as the top team in the nation. Western New England University checks in at #15 overall and Trinity College is ranked 19th in the country.

New England Region foes Eastern Connecticut State University, Southern Maine, Husson University, Bridgewater State University, Tufts University and Western Connecticut State University also earned votes in the preseason ranking.

The D3baseball.com Top 25 Poll is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country and is published weekly.

The Monks will kick off the 2013 season with a single game at Endicott College on Saturday, March 2nd. First pitch is set for 12:00 PM.

2013 D3baseball.com Preseason Poll

*Release courtesy of Saint Joseph's College (ME) Sports Information Dept.