Posted: Jan 25, 2012
BEVERLY, Mass. – D3baseball.com and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) have announced their preseason poll for the 2012 baseball season, and the Endicott Gulls have received a vote towards national ranking.
Endicott, who finished their 2011 season with a 32-15 record and a share of the ECAC New England Baseball Championship, has now been mentioned as a preseason national contender for the second consecutive year.
What the Gulls also see in the release of these rankings are several of this season’s opponents, also slated to be among the best teams in the country, and certainly in the region, making this year another tough test for the Gulls as they try to get back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2006.
The Gulls will continue their tradition of playing the top teams in the region, and recent participants in the NCAA tournament in 2012. This year Endicott will take on four schools that competed in last year’s New England Regionals in Harwich, Mass., three of them champions of their respective conferences and each of them tabbed in this year’s preseason poll.
The most important of those games will come against Western New England University, who snuck by Endicott in last year’s Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) championship game and went on to win the New England Regional and book a trip to the Division III World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin. The Golden Bears are ranked 15th in the nation coming into this year’s season and return much of their team from last year’s successful slate. Endicott’s conference double-header will be April 1st in Springfield, Mass., and could be another preview of a postseason matchup.
The Gulls will also play two non-conference games against New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) champion and perennial powerhouse Wheaton College. The Lyons, ranked 18th in the country, will come to town on March 22nd for Endicott’s home opener, with a return leg set for April 24th at Norton, Mass.
Endicott is also slated for a double-header with St. Joseph’s of Maine, who last year won the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) and appeared in the NCAA for the second straight year, and MIT, who were edged by Wheaton in the NEWMAC final and, after making their first appearance in the NCAA’s since 1972 as an at-large selection, now are receiving seven votes in the preseason poll.
For the fifth straight season, Endicott will start their baseball season in Florida, as the Gulls will play ten games at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational. St. Joseph’s of Maine will get their first pitch of the 2012 season on March 11th, kicking off a week that includes difficult regional competition including Bowdoin, Keene State, and Trinity (Conn.), who won the Division 3 World Series in 2008.
Endicott will return to play at Salem State University and host Wheaton before CCC play starts on March 24th, when the Gulls travel to Dudley for a double-header against Nichols College. In-season non-conference tests will include a home and home with the University of Southern Maine, who got 8 votes in the preseason poll, road tests against Worcester State and Westfield State and home tilts with Brandeis and Suffolk.
The Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament will begin on May 3rd.
