CACC Announces Baseball Preseason Poll

Baseball | 2/1/2017 12:00:00 AM

Tweet #GBCLightning

Goldey-Beacom is about to embark on what should be an exciting inaugural campaign and will go against quality teams from the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, which today released its preseason poll as voted by the league's coaches.

The Lightning boast a roster of 26 players that will go against some of the best teams in the NCAA East Region. The 32-game conference slate opens March 17 at home against University of the Sciences and is one of eight home league doubleheaders on the schedule. The home finale within the CACC is April 28 against reigning-league-champion Felician.

With the addition of Goldey-Beacom into baseball, the CACC now sports 12 teams and will divide into two six-team divisions. A similar format is used for men's basketball, women's basketball and volleyball.

GBC will be in the South Division along with Wilmington (DE), U. of the Sciences, Philadelphia U., Chestnut Hill and Felician. It will play each team in two doubleheaders – one at home and one on the road – for a total of 20 games. The first game each day is nine innings and the second is a seven-inning contest.

The North Division includes Caldwell, Bloomfield, Concordia (NY), Dominican (NY), Nyack and Post. The Lightning will play each of these schools in one doubleheader for a total of 12 contests. All non-division games are nine innings.

The top four teams in each division advance to the CACC Tournament. The quarterfinals feature a single-elimination game May 6 with each contest at the higher seed. The four remaining schools play in the double-elimination portion May 11-13 in Waterbury, CT.

Tom Riley is the team's first coach after spending 2013-15 as an assistant coach for Delaware State University. He handled many things within the program including recruiting, monitoring academic development, heading the team's Dugout Club for fundraising, leading the program's baseball camps and being in charge of field maintenance.

Riley's influence helped the Hornets in 2014 lead Division I with a .336 batting average, a .435 on-base percentage and close second with 8.2 runs per contest. The 2013 unit paced the NCAA with 3.02 stolen bases per game.

Baseball is the College's first debutant since women's tennis was introduced in 2005-06 and will be the school's 11th sport.

While baseball will be new under the name Goldey-Beacom College, it will be a re-instatement for the institution. Baseball was played at what was then called Goldey College as early as 1922 and continued into the 1950s. This included an undefeated season in 1935 and the Atlantic Coast championship (no affiliation with the current Atlantic Coast Conference) in 1947.

2017 CACC Baseball Preseason Poll

South Division
1. Felician                    71 pts. (11 first-place votes)
2. Wilmington (DE)      56 pts.
3. Philadelphia U.        44 pts. (1)
4. Chestnut Hill            43 pts.
5. Goldey-Beacom     20 pts.
6. U. of the Sciences   18 pts.

North Division
1. Dominican (NY)        69 pts. (10)
2. Post                          59 pts. (2)
3. Concordia (NY)        42 pts.
4. Nyack                       35 pts.
5. Bloomfield                 29 pts.
6. Caldwell                    18 pts.

Print Friendly Version