Saint Joseph’s Baseball Ranked 28th Nationally, Fourth Regionally
The Collegiate Baseball DIII Poll and NEIBA weekly coaches poll have been released, with SJC ranked 28th nationally and fourth in the New England Region.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Courtesy of SJC Athletics Communications
STANDISH, Maine – The American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball NCAA DIII Poll and New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) weekly coaches poll have been released and Saint Joseph's College is ranked 28th nationally and fourth in the New England Region.
The Monks, off to a 10-2 start after two trips to Florida this spring, is ranked nationally after sweeping the team's second southern swing last weekend with one-sided victories over Thomas College (15-7 & 7-0), Worcester State (20-3), and Benedictine (IL) (14-4) in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.
St. Joe's, with 47 points in this week's poll, is one of four New England Region programs, along with #15 Tufts University (253 points), #23 Southern Maine (95), and #26 Salve Regina (52), to earn recognition on the national ranking.
With 30 points in the first NEIBA poll of the 2017 season, Saint Joseph's sits behind Tufts University (56 points), which received seven first-place votes, Salve Regina University (40), and Eastern Connecticut State University (34). Southern Maine (25), Wesleyan College (22), UMass.-Boston (13), and Clark University (10) round out the top eight picks in New England.
WPI, Western New England, MIT, Westfield State, Mitchell, and Nichols also received votes in the first NEIBA poll of the 2017 season.
Saint Joseph's has scored 140 runs through 12 contests this season – the most through 12 games in program history and exactly double the Monks' run total through a dozen games last spring – and currently leads the nation with a .398 (158-396) batting average. St. Joe's also leads the country in scoring (11.7 runs per game), and on-base percentage (.485) and ranks second nationally in slugging percentage (.567).
The Monks also feature two players in the top 11 in batting average, as sophomore Noah McDaniel (Eliot, Maine) and senior Taylor Black (Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.) rank fifth (.571) and 11th (.523), respectively, in NCAA DIII Baseball.
The Monks' home opener, scheduled for Wednesday against Gordon College, has been postponed.