The 23rd-ranked University of Southern Indiana baseball team is picked to finish second the Great Lakes Valley Conference East Division in 2017 after a vote of the league’s 16 head coaches. USI also tallied five first place votes of a possible 16 and 108 points in the poll.
The Screaming Eagles are coming off a 2016 season that saw USI finish with a 38-21 overall record and a GLVC mark of 20-8. For the fourth time in the past 10 seasons, the Eagles won an NCAA II Midwest Regional championship and moved on to the NCAA II Championship Series in Cary, North Carolina.
The University of Indianapolis (114 points, 10 first place votes) was selected to finish first in the GLVC East after capturing the GLVC Tournament title a year ago. The Eagles were followed in the poll by Bellarmine University (90) who earned the final first-place vote in the East, Saint Joseph’s College (70) and Lewis University (66), respectively, while the University of Illinois Springfield (60), McKendree University (31) and University of Wisconsin-Parkside (29) rounded out the division.
Quincy University, who are ranked 22nd nationally, took the top spot in the West Division with 116 points and 13 of the 16 first-place votes. Rockhurst University (85 points, two first-place votes) was picked to finish second in the West, while the University of Missouri of Science and Technology and William Jewel College were both picked third with 74 points. Missouri S&T also earned the final first-place vote.
Drury University (70 points) was predicted to place fifth, while the University of Missouri-St. Louis (61), Truman State University (57), and Maryville University (31) round out the eight-team division.
The Eagles start the 2017 campaign in Tampa, Florida for the second time in three years, taking on the second-ranked University of Tampa. The three-game series begins Friday, February 17.
