PEMBROKE, N.C. – The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) announced the preseason All-Region teams for NCAA Division II earlier this week and among the honored selections in the Central Region are a pair of Southern Arkansas student-athletes; two of the team's top returners from the Muleriders' historic postseason run in 2018. Additionally, Southern Arkansas, which finished as Runner-Up in the Central Region a season ago, begins the season ranked #13 in the country in both the NCBWA and Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Preseason Polls following a 41-19 campaign.
 
Senior outfielder Dakota Wright and junior second baseman Austin Baker received the preseason acclaim as both players were named to the NCBWA All-Central Region Second-Team. The duo joined six other players from the Great American Conference on the preseason teams.
 
Wright, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, was a .308 hitter (66-for-214) in his first season with the Muleriders. The everyday centerfielder for Southern Arkansas in 2018, Wright's 66 hits, included 14 doubles, three triples, and a team-leading 13 home runs which helped build a .584 slugging clip; the highest among returners for SAU in 2019. Wright posted twenty multiple hit games and 18 multiple RBI games. He registered 62 RBI and scored 55 runs, while totaling the second-most bases with 125. Defensively, Wright recorded 154 putouts to just three errors to lead all outfielders with a .981 fielding percentage. For his efforts, Wright was named an Honorable Mention All-GAC outfielder.
 
A native of Amarillo, Texas, Baker started all 60 games for Southern Arkansas at second base last season and produced an average of .340 with 84 hits, including 13 extra base hits. In 54 of his 60 starts, Baker hit leadoff for the Muleriders and logged a team-best hitting streak of 20 games and a team-best reached base streak of 29 games. An All-GAC Tournament selection, Baker scored a team-leading 63 runs with 31 RBI and totaled 102 bases. In the field, Baker recorded the league's second-most assists with 147 and added 105 putouts.
 
Southern Arkansas' positioning in the NCBWA poll places the program as the second-highest ranked Central Region team behind defending national champion Augustana, which received a dozen of the 19 first-place votes. The Muleriders received 247 points; three points ahead of Georgia College and 28 points back of cracking the Top 10.
 
In the CBN DII Preseason Top 40, the Muleriders received 592 points, ten points back of tenth place and again were the second-highest representative of the Central Region behind the 2018 National Champion Vikings.
 
Four of Southern Arkansas' opponents in 2019 appeared in at least one of the polls with Delta State (RV/#10) and Mississippi College (#18/RV) placing in both rankings. Oklahoma Baptist and Arkansas-Monticello both received votes in the CBN DII Preseason Top 40.