Five-time defending GNAC champion Monks receive six of a possible eight first-place votes

WINTHROP, Mass. – Saint Joseph's College of Maine received six first-place votes and 61 points overall to finish first in the 2015 GNAC Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll, it was announced by the conference office on Wednesday. 

Saint Joseph's, which is receiving votes in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Division III preseason poll, won its fifth consecutive GNAC Tournament title last spring, as the Monks finished 30-15 overall and 11-3 in league contests. They defeated Suffolk University in the 2014 GNAC Championship game, 2-0, en route to a spot in the NCAA Division III Tournament, where following a regional-opening setback to Tufts, they won a pair of contests over Worcester State and Mitchell before getting ousted by MIT.

Suffolk finished second in the preseason poll, as voted upon by the league's eight head coaches, with 54 points and one first-place tally. Suffolk won last year's GNAC regular-season title with a 12-2 league mark before advancing to the GNAC Final, and then defeated league foe Lasell College, Salve Regina and Roger Williams to lay claim to the 2014 ECAC Division III New England Championship last May. This spring, first-year head coach Anthony Del Prete will guide the Rams, who went 26-14-1 overall in 2014, after spending 10 years as an assistant coach.

Johnson & Wales University (29-14, 9-5 GNAC) finished third in the preseason ledger with one first-place nod and 53 points, finishing just one point behind Suffolk. The Wildcats fell to Suffolk, 11-3, in 13 innings on the final day of last year's GNAC Tournament, while a victory over the Rams would have earned Johnson & Wales a spot in the championship game later that day against Saint Joseph's.

Lasell (18-14, 10-4 GNAC) garnered 35 points in the poll to take fourth place, while Norwich University (7-16, 4-10 GNAC) rounded out the top-five with 28 points.

Albertus Magnus College (16-14, 7-7 GNAC) received 27 points, Anna Maria College (7-22, 2-12 GNAC) collected 17 points, and Rivier University (3-27, 1-13 GNAC) earned 13 points to make up the remainder of the poll.

Saint Joseph's is scheduled to play six contests this month, beginning this weekend at the Emory Tournament in Atlanta, Ga., followed by a trip to Fayetteville, N.C. beginning February 27.

GNAC play will get underway on Saturday, March 28 with four doubleheaders, while the six-team GNAC Tournament is slated to begin with single-elimination, first-round action on Tuesday, April 21. The top-two seeds will receive byes into the four-team, double-elimination portion of the tournament scheduled on Thursday, April 23, with Suffolk set to host the final two days of the league tournament April 25-26.

Founded in 1995, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III association made up of 12 member institutions and over 3,000 student-athletes across the New England region. Each year, the GNAC sponsors and administers 17 championships, while balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunities and community involvement.

2015 GNAC Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll:

1. Saint Joseph's (Maine) (6) - 61

2. Suffolk (1) - 54

3. Johnson & Wales (1) - 53

4. Lasell - 35

5. Norwich - 28

6. Albertus Magnus - 27

7. Anna Maria - 17

8. Rivier - 13