STANDISH, Maine – The American Baseball Coaches Association/Collegiate Baseball NCAA DIII Poll and New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) weekly coaches poll have been released and Saint Joseph's College is ranked 28th nationally and fourth in the New England Region.
The Monks, off to a 10-2 start after two trips to Florida this spring, is ranked nationally after sweeping the team's second southern swing last weekend with one-sided victories over Thomas College (15-7 & 7-0), Worcester State (20-3), and Benedictine (IL) (14-4) in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational.
St. Joe's, with 47 points in this week's poll, is one of four New England Region programs, along with #15 Tufts University (253 points), #23 Southern Maine (95), and #26 Salve Regina (52), to earn recognition on the national ranking.
With 30 points in the first NEIBA poll of the 2017 season, Saint Joseph's sits behind Tufts University (56 points), which received seven first-place votes, Salve Regina University (40), and Eastern Connecticut State University (34). Southern Maine (25), Wesleyan College (22), UMass.-Boston (13), and Clark University (10) round out the top eight picks in New England.
WPI, Western New England, MIT, Westfield State, Mitchell, and Nichols also received votes in the first NEIBA poll of the 2017 season.
Saint Joseph's has scored 140 runs through 12 contests this season – the most through 12 games in program history and exactly double the Monks' run total through a dozen games last spring – and currently leads the nation with a .398 (158-396) batting average. St. Joe's also leads the country in scoring (11.7 runs per game), and on-base percentage (.485) and ranks second nationally in slugging percentage (.567).
The Monks also feature two players in the top 11 in batting average, as sophomore Noah McDaniel (Eliot, Maine) and senior Taylor Black (Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.) rank fifth (.571) and 11th (.523), respectively, in NCAA DIII Baseball.
Field conditions permitting, Saint Joseph's will face Gordon College tomorrow at 3:30 PM.
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 474-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
