The Men’s Baseball team celebrate after winning a game. (image credit: SNHU Penmen)

This content originally appeared on SNHUPenmen.com

The Southern New Hampshire University baseball team was a unanimous selection to finish atop the Northeast Division, according to the Northeast-10 Preseason Coaches’ Poll that was released Thursday.

The Penmen earned all possible 14 first-place votes and 105 total points to finish ahead of defending Franklin Pierce University, which garnered the other first-place vote and 92 total points. Merrimack College placed third with 74 points, while Stonehill College was fourth with 61. Assumption College registered 52 points to check in fifth, ahead of Bentley University’s 49 points. Saint Anselm College (25) and Saint Michael’s College (18) rounded out the remainder of the Northeast.

In the Southwest Division, defending NE10 Champion University of New Haven garnered nine first-place votes and 78 points to edge out Le Moyne College, which tallied up five first-place votes and 75 points. Southern Connecticut State University received the other first-place nod and 62 points to finish third, with Pace University coming in fourth with 56 points. Adelphi University was fifth with 41 points, while American International College (22) and the College of Saint Rose (16) finished off the Southwest poll.

Southern New Hampshire, led by 10th-year head coach and two-time reigning NCBWA East Region and NE10 Coach of the Year Scott Loiseau, finished with an overall record of 43-11, going 20-2 in the month of April and winning 27 of 29 at one point. The squad captured its first outright NE10 Northeast Division title with a 20-1 mark and reached the semifinals of the NE10 Championship before receiving the top seed and hosting duties for the East Regional, as it garnered its sixth NCAA Tournament berth. The Penmen advanced to their second straight regional final before falling to St. Thomas Aquinas College.

The Penmen were selected 12th in the Preseason National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Division II Poll and second in the NCBWA East Region Poll last week, in addition to placing seniors Ryan Sullivan (Hopkinton, Mass.), Caleb Potter (Mentor, Ohio) and Mitchell Powers (Portland, Maine) on the Preseason NCBWA All-East Region Team.

The Penmen kick off the 2018 season with a five-game trip to South Carolina from Feb. 22-25. SNHU starts out against the University of Bridgeport on day one at 6 p.m.

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