W&J Baseball Tabbed To Repeat As PAC Regular Season Champions
WASHINGTON, Pa. – The Presidents’ Athletic Conference released its preseason baseball coaches poll on Monday and Washington & Jefferson College was selected to place first.
W&J received six-of-nine first-place votes and collected 77 points overall. Thomas More was second with 70 points and one first-place selection, followed by Saint Vincent (53) and Thiel (49), which also earned one top vote. Waynesburg was fifth (47), while Westminster (32) gained the final first-place pick and tied Bethany (32) for sixth. Grove City (23) and Geneva (22) rounded out the poll.
The Presidents set school records by winning 21 conference games and 36 contests overall last spring. W&J advanced to the NCAA Division III Tournament for the third time in the last four seasons and earned the program’s third victory in the tournament, an 8-0 shutout against Wooster.
A total of 16 letter winners return, including eight who earned All-PAC accolades, for Head Coach Jeff Mountain’s team. Mountain owns a 270-157-1 (.632) mark in 11 seasons in Washington. The Presidents are ranked 20th in the preseason Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll and 21st by D3baseball.com.
W&J opens the season with a three-game conference series against Bethany. The Presidents travel to West Virginia for a doubleheader on March 9 (1:00 pm) before opening their home slate against Bethany the following day.
