Sea Gulls ranked No. 11 in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper preseason poll
TUCSON, Ariz. - After the Salisbury University baseball team finished the 2008 season with a school record 41 wins the Sea Gulls have been selected No. 11 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper NCAA Division III Top 30 preseason poll.
Salisbury, the 2008 Capital Athletic Conference champions, garnered 232 points and was only one point shy of cracking the Top 10. Eastern Connecticut State University collected 232 points and is ranked No. 10. Last season, SU checked into the same preseason poll at No. 26.
The Sea Gulls will look to build off of last year's record breaking season in which they won 35 consecutive games and went onto win their third straight CAC title (eighth overall). SU also earned the top-seed in the South Regional and was one game away from making the program's third College World Series appearance. The maroon and gold finished the '08 season ranked No. 7 in the nation.
There are two preseason Top 10 teams on the schedule for Salisbury in '09. The Sea Gulls will be the first team on the schedule for No. 1 SUNY Cortland when the Red Dragons come to Salisbury on February 22. SU will travel to No. 7 Johns Hopkins University on April 28 in a rematch of last year's regional final. Salisbury will also play three games against two teams that received votes in the poll when it travels to Christopher Newport University on April 24 and hosts the Captains the next day on April 25. Salisbury will entertain Montclair St. in the regular-season finale on May 6.
Salisbury begins its '09 campaign on the road Saturday, February 7, at Noon against the Marlins of Virginia Wesleyan College.
2009 Collegiate Baseball Newspaper NCAA
Division III Top 30 Preseason Poll
1. SUNY Cortland
2. Chapman (Calif.)
3. Adrian (Mich.)
4. Kean (N.J.)
5. Southern Maine
6. Trinity (Conn.)
7. Johns Hopkins (Md.)
8. Wooster (Ohio)
9. Wisc.-Whitewater
10. Eastern Connecticut State
11. SALISBURY (Md.)
12. Heidelberg (Ohio)
13. Texas-Tyler
14. Lynchburg (Va.)
15. Marietta (Ohio)
16. Illinois Wesleyan
17. Linfield (Ore.)
18. St. Scholastica (Minn.)
19. Redlands (Calif.)
20. La Verne (Calif.)
21. Thiel (Pa.)
22. Rensselaer (N.Y.)
23. Wheaton (Ill.)
24. Rowan (N.J.)
25. St. Thomas (Minn.)
26. Webster (Mo.)
27. Piedmont (Ga.)
28. Keene State (N.H.)
29. Ithaca (N.Y.)
30. The College of New Jersey
Other Top Teams: Carthage (Wisc.), Wisc.-Oshkosh, Montclair State (N.J.), Christopher Newport (Va.), Pacific Lutheran (Wash.), Denison (Ohio), Wisc.-Stevens Point, Rose-Hulman (Ind.), Penn. St. Behrend, Aurora (Ill.), Franklin (Ind.), McMurry (Texas), William Paterson (N.J.), St. Joseph's (N.Y.), California Lutheran, Beloit (Wisc.), Rochester (N.Y.), Haverford (Pa.), Pomona-Pitzer (Calif.), St. Olaf (Minn.)
Source: Collegiate Baseball newspaper
Teams in italic are Salisbury opponents in '09
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