Centennial Conference Preseason Poll
Centennial Conference Preseason Preview
HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College baseball team was picked second in the Centennial Conference preseason poll, the conference office announced on Tuesday morning. Haverford received 70 total voting points and two first place votes.
Johns Hopkins, the defending Centennial Conference champions, were picked to repeat with 80 total votes and the remaining eight first place tallies. The Blue Jays are ranked as the No. 8 team in the nation in the preseason D3Baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll.
Franklin & Marshall was slated third with 55 voting points while Ursinus (54 points) joins the Fords and Blue Jays as the third squad expected to repeat a trip to the Centennial Conference tournament.
Swarthmore (50 points), Gettysburg (48 points), Dickinson (31 points) and Muhlenberg (26 points) are predicted fifth through eighth while McDaniel and Washington College finished in a ninth place tie with 18 points.
The Fords are looking for an 11th straight appearance in the Centennial Conference Tournament under head coach Dave Beccaria in 2018. Haverford qualified for the Centennial Conference Tournament for the 10th straight season and the 12th time in 13 seasons in 2017. In addition, Haverford reached the 20-win plateau for the seventh time in eight campaigns a season ago.
In 2017, Haverford was aggressive on the base paths, swiping three bases per contest, the secon-best mark in Division III. Displaying power up and down the lineup, the Fords 1.05 home runs per game was seventh in the nation. Defensive prowess up the middle resulted in Haverford averaging 1.24 double plays per game, the second most in the nation. Haverford will return both All-Region and All-Centennial talents in Lee-Tyson and Ben Furlong in 2018.
Ethan Lee-Tyson became Haverford's 26th first-team all-conference selection in program history. The outfielder was Haverford's first selection to the ABCA/Rawlings all-region first team since Tommy Bergjans in 2015 and the first position player elected to the first team since Charlie Carluccio in 2011. Lee-Tyson is the first Haverford position player to garner D3Baseball.com's All-Mid-Atlantic recognition since Alex Hudak and Casey Fox in 2013.
Haverford will open up the 2017 campaign on March 3 with a doubleheader at Catholic. The matchups are slated to be played at the Washington Nationals Youth Academy in Washington, D.C.