Southern Arkansas Baseball Eighth in Ping Poll
Posted by Houston Taylor on January 15, 2009 · Leave a Comment
By: Houston Taylor
MAGNOLIA, Ark. – This season’s second national NCAA Division II pre-season baseball poll has been announced and Southern Arkansas finds itself eighth in the annual Ping top 30 poll released Thursday. The Muleriders are picked sixth in the Collegiate Baseball poll released earlier.
SAU is one of four teams from the Gulf South Conference ranked in Ping’s poll, all falling in the top ten. West Division rival Delta State gets the top nod, being ranked first after finishing ninth last year in the poll. West foe Ouachita Baptist is fifth, and GSC East member West Alabama is ninth.
Following Delta State is Mount Olive (N.C.), last year’s national champion which defeated Ouachita Baptist in the final game of the World Series. Tampa (Fla.) is third, and Central Missouri and OBU round out the top five.
South Carolina-Aiken and Emporia State (Kan.) are in front of Southern Arkansas at sixth and seventh, respectively, and California State-Chico is behind West Alabama at 10th.
The Muleriders’ 46 wins a year ago matched a school record and gave the school its third consecutive season of 40-plus victories.
SAU’s 2009 squad opens the season with its first eight games on the road, beginning February 1-2 with three games at St. Edwards (Texas) in San Antonio. The home opener is February 10 in a nine-inning contest with Louisiana State-Shreveport, and a 13-game home stand begins February 20 that features Northwest Missouri State, Southern Indiana, Culver-Stockton (Mo.) College, East Central (Okla.), West Florida and Drury (Mo.).
The schedule features non-conference games against top-ranked and perennial powers Tampa and West Alabama in Livingston, Ala., February 14-15. Gulf South Conference play begins March 14-15 at Harding and wraps up with home series in slugfests against highly ranked Ouachita Baptist April 18-19 and Delta State April 25-26.
