SUWANEE, Ga. - Trinity University has been selected as the preseason favorite based on balloting from league head coaches heading into the 2023 SCAC Baseball Season. Complete Release
In search of its 13th SCAC baseball tournament title, Trinity set a new league record with 19 regular season conference wins en route to the 2022 regular season crown. The Tigers garnered seven first-place votes to top the coaches’ poll with 60 points.
Trinity opens the 2023 campaign ranked fifth in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25 poll, after advancing to the program’s third NCAA Division III College World Series and posting a 38-13 overall record last season. The 38 wins is tied for seventh most in a single season in SCAC history. The Tigers return a trio of players selected All-Region by the ABCA and D3baseball.com, all First Team All-SCAC performers, in senior catcher Tyler Pettit, senior utility player Ezra Gore and junior pitcher Joseph Chavana. Pettit and Gore were both named First Team All-Region by D3baseball.com. Pettit was also named Fifth Team All-American by D3baseball.com, while Gore was also chosen for the ABCA All-Region Third Team. Last season that duo combined for 123 hits, 100 runs scored, 77 RBI, 25 doubles and 11 home runs. Chavana, a Second Team All-Region honoree by D3baseball.com and Third Team by ABCA, headlines the Tigers pitching staff. The right-hander led the SCAC with 10 wins a season ago and his career .882 (15-2) winning percentage is currently tied for the third-best in league history. Last year, Chavana led the SCAC in innings pitched (90.2) and complete games (4), while his Trinity-leading 80 strikeouts (4th in SCAC) helped the Tigers set a new SCAC record with 467 team strikeouts. Trinity broke the previous mark of 264 set by the 2004 Tigers.
Trinity is led by Head Coach Tim Scannell, who will begin his 25th season in charge of the baseball program. He has won more than 730 games in his 24 seasons as the Tiger skipper, and his career winning percentage of 72.7 percent ranks him in the top 10 among active coaches in Division III.
Texas Lutheran (28-14, 17-4), which has won 25-plus games in each of the past four seasons (excluding the shortened Covid-19 season), picked up 52 points to finish second in the preseason poll. The Bulldogs set a program record last year with 17 wins in SCAC play and open the 2023 season ranked 29th in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25 poll. TLU, which set an SCAC record last season with a .978 team fielding percentage, returns a pair of First Team All-SCAC performers in senior pitcher Joe Burch and senior outfielder Payton Dahl. Burch, who was selected to the D3baseball.com All-Region Third Team, led the SCAC with 83 strikeouts and finished the season with a 7-4 record and a 3.89 ERA. Dahl hit .366 last year, with 37 hits, 24 runs scored and 21 RBI. He also swiped 19 bases to help TLU lead the SCAC with 123.
Leading TLU in 2023 will be Rick Heines, who enters his third year as head coach and 11th overall with the program. He served eight seasons as pitching coach and recruiting coordinator and was associate head coach from 2018-2020.
The defending SCAC Tournament Champions, Centenary College, went 27-19 a year ago, including a 14-7 mark in league play, and round out the top three in the preseason rankings after securing 48 total points. The Gents, who made their second NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament appearance in program history last year and are the third different SCAC team to reach the postseason in the last two seasons, will be led by a pair of First Team All-SCAC arms from a year ago in sophomore Tyler Herrera and senior Parker Primeaux. Herrera, the league’s Freshman and Pitcher-of-the-Year in 2022, was also named a D3baseball.com Second Team All-American in addition to Region 10 Rookie and Pitcher-of-the-Year. He finished in the top 10 in the country in ERA (1.59) and went 7-1 with two complete games. Herrera, whose ERA was under 1.00 for most of the season, made 16 appearances and nine starts and in 73.2 innings pitched allowed just 13 earned runs and 61 hits with 25 walks and 59 strikeouts. Primeaux collected ABCA All-Region Third Team honors in 2022 and enters this season tied for eight all-time in SCAC history with 13 career saves. Herrera and Primeaux will anchor a staff that led the league with a 4.87 team ERA last year.
Mike Diaz enters his 13th season as head coach of the Gents in 2023 and holds an overall record of 276-196-1 (.581) with an impressive 95-36 mark in SCAC action.
Following its first SCAC Tournament appearance and victory in program history, University of St. Thomas (18-25, 11-10) was selected to finish fourth in this year’s preseason poll with 38 points. The Celts won a program best 11 SCAC games last year and return a pair of Second Team All-SCAC performers from in sophomore outfielder Dylan Lamb and senior pitcher Chris Parsons. Lamb led the SCAC with seven triples last year and finished the season with a .264 batting average to go along with 34 hits, 26 RBI, 23 stolen bases and six home runs. Parsons closed out his junior year in style, striking out seven or more batters in four of his final five starts and finished second with 51 strikeouts in SCAC play. His 3.46 ERA was third-best across the league last year.
Southwestern University (20-18, 10-11), which posted its fourth-straight .500 or better season for the first time since 2002-2005, received the final first-place vote and finished fifth in the poll with 37 points. The Pirates will be led by 2022 First Team All-SCAC third baseman, senior Henry Fisher. Fisher finished second in the SCAC with a .387 batting average and 13 doubles. In addition, the senior posted 41 hits, 31 runs scored and 22 RBI.
After securing its most wins since the 2018 season with 16 a season ago, Schreiner University (16-24, 7-14) checks in a sixth with 25 points. The Mountaineers welcome back Second Team All-SCAC outfielder Devin Hooper who posted career highs last year in hits (55), RBI (30) and triples (3).
University of Dallas (9-28, 3-18) returns its top two hit leaders from a season ago in junior Michael Anderson and sophomore Tyler Darnell, both of whom earned Honorable Mention All-SCAC honors after combining for 70 hits. The Crusaders earned 18 points to finish seventh in the preseason rankings.
Austin College rounds out the 2023 baseball coaches’ preseason poll with 10 points. The ‘Roos will look for continued growth from a pair of Honorable Mention All-SCAC performers from a year ago in sophomores Mason Woodhouse and Scott Hosmer. The duo combined for 69 hits, including 17 extra base efforts, to go along with 41 RBI and 26 runs scored.
The 2023 SCAC baseball season begins on February 4th, while the first conference series of the year are scheduled for Friday, March 17th. The 2023 SCAC Baseball Tournament will be held in May at The Depot at Cleburne Station as the double-elimination tournament will begin on Friday the 5th.
| 2023 SCAC Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll (first-place votes in parentheses, followed by total points) |
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| 1. | Trinity University (7) | 60 |
| 2. | Texas Lutheran University | 52 |
| 3. | Centenary College | 48 |
| 4. | University of St. Thomas | 38 |
| 5. | Southwestern University (1) | 37 |
| 6. | Schreiner University | 25 |
| 7. | University of Dallas | 18 |
| 8. | Austin College | 10 |
