LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. - Trinity University has been selected as the preseason favorite based on balloting from league head coaches heading into the 2020 SCAC Baseball Season.
The Tigers, who won the SCAC tournament championship a year ago, earned six of the eight first-place votes cast by league coaches to finish atop the poll with 60 points. Texas Lutheran, which earned its second-straight trip to the NCAA Tournament last year after tying with Trinity for the regular season conference title, checked in at second with 55 points, while Southwestern earned the final two first-place votes to claim the third spot with 51 points. Centenary, which is one of three different SCAC programs to earn an NCAA bid in the last three years, finished fourth with 41 points. Dallas rounded out the top five with 29 points, followed by Schreiner (22) in sixth and first-year program St. Thomas and Austin College sharing the seventh spot with 15 total points.
Trinity, which opens the 2020 campaign ranked third in the D3baseball.com Preseason Poll, enters the season with three returning players that garnered All-SCAC First Team honors last year, highlighted by the senior duo of outfielder Rafe Chaumette and catcher Michael Goodrich. In addition to his All-SCAC accolades, Chaumette was named to the D3baseball.com All-West Region Third Team and the West Region All-Tournament Team. He led the Tigers with a .351 batting average and drove in a team-best 44 runs. Chaumette also blasted six home runs during the season. Goodrich tied for the team lead with seven home runs and batted .315 in the process. He also drove in 39 runs, while scoring 37, and producing 10 doubles. Junior right-handed pitcher Corey Cater rounds out the list of Trinity’s All-SCAC First-Team performers after he paced the Tiger pitching staff with a 2.43 ERA over 74.0 innings on the mound and led the team with 71 strikeouts. Cater chalked up a 7-3 record and posted a team-best five saves. Cater was also named to the D3baseball.com All-West Region Third Team and the West Region All-Tournament Team. Second-Team All-SCAC performer from a year ago and every day starter, Mason Meredith will be a mainstay in the lineup this season. A senior outfielder, Meredith batted .328, fired up six home runs, scored 44 runs, and drove in 40.
On the mound, Cater will be complimented by senior left-hander James Nittoli who earned SCAC All-Tournament Team honors last year in staking the Tigers to their 12th conference title. Nittoli registered a 6-1 record and a 4.68 ERA in 57.2 innings, while striking out 45.
Trinity is once again led by head coach Tim Scannell, who is in his 22nd year at the helm of the Tiger program. Scannell has earned SCAC Coach-of-the-Year honors 10 times in his career and has amassed a record of 698-266 (.724) over 21 seasons. He is ranked in the top-10 among active NCAA Division III coaches by winning percentage.
The 2020 SCAC baseball season begins on February 1st, while the first conference series of the season are scheduled for Friday, March 13th. The 2020 SCAC Baseball Tournament will be held in May at The Depot at Cleburne Station as the double-elimination tournament will begin on Friday the 1st.
| 2020 SCAC Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll (first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points) |
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| 1. | Trinity University (6) | 60 |
| 2 | Texas Lutheran University | 55 |
| 3. | Southwestern University (2) | 51 |
| 4. | Centenary College | 41 |
| 5. | University of Dallas | 29 |
| 6. | Schreiner University | 22 |
| 7. | Austin College | 15 |
| University of St. Thomas | 15 | |