FOREST, Va. –Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) baseball coaches picked Guilford College ninth in their annual preseason poll released Thursday. The Quakers earned 31 points in the 11-team ranking. Shenandoah University, the defending ODAC Tournament runner up, collected nine first-place votes and tops the poll with 98 points. Randolph-Macon College placed second, followed by defending league champion Bridgewater College.
Guilford head coach Nick Black ’02 returns five starters (3 fielders, 2 pitchers) among 24 letter winners from last year’s 19-20 (9-11 ODAC) team. Senior outfielder Herc Ingels is coming off a career year in which he hit .333 with seven doubles and 16 runs batted in (RBI). He is the Quakers’ top returning hitter, just ahead of junior catcher Nathan Fulbright, a 2013 Third Team All-ODAC selection. Fulbright batted .313 in 2014 with seven doubles and 20 RBI.
Senior right-hander Drew Crawford is the Quakers’ top returning starting pitcher. He went 3-4 in 2014 with a 5.51 earned run average (ERA) and 21 strikeouts in 49 innings. Classmates Justin Morrison (3-1, 5.73 ERA, 3 saves, 13 appearances) and Avery Rogers (1-2, 2.70 ERA, 2 saves, 12 appearances) were top relievers a year ago who return this spring.
The Quakers begin the 2015 campaign, the 126th recorded baseball season at Guilford, with nonconference games Friday (2/6) and Saturday (2/7) at Berry College. Guilford opens its home schedule Feb. 10 versus Averett University and starts ODAC play Feb. 28 against visiting Randolph-Macon.
2015 ODAC BASEBALL PRESEASON POLL (#) denotes first-place votes
1. Shenandoah (9) 98
2. Randolph-Macon 85
3. Bridgewater (2) 82
T4. Lynchburg 70
T4. Hampden-Sydney 70
6. Roanoke 54
7. Washington and Lee 43
8. Virginia Wesleyan 37
9. Guilford 31
10. Eastern Mennonite 22
11.Emory & Henry 13