Three Division III Illinois baseball teams are ranked in the Pre-Season poll released by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
The highest ranked team on the poll is Concordia University Chicago, ranked #13. Concordia is also ranked #16 on the Pre-Season Poll released by D3Baseball.com. Concordia finished last season at 39-7.
Augustana is also on both polls coming in at #22 on Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and #21 on D3Baseball.com. Augustana finished at 34-11 in 2013.
Illinois Wesleyan is the final Illinois D3 baseball team on the Pre-season Polls coming in at #26 on the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll. Illinois Wesleyan finished 2013 with a record of 33-14.
In the latest Division III national baseball polls both Concordia University and North Park University earn spots on the poll for Illinois teams. Augustana, who was ranked 13th has dropped off of the national poll as of April 25th.
Concordia (23-5) is ranked at #20
North Park (24-7) is ranked at #25
Illinois Wesleyan and Augustana did receive votes but did not make the rankings this week.
John A. Logan College moves up to #15 on the NJCAA Basball Division I poll on March 16th after a 12-2 start. Wabash Valley College (16-5) lands at #21 and Olney Central College (17-3) makes their first appearance at #25 on the national poll.
Illinois NJCAA Division I ranked baseball teams as of March 2nd 2011:
#24 John A. Logan College (8-1)
The Aurora University Baseball team received 7 of 11 first place votes as the 2011 preseason favorite in the Northern Athletics Conference.
Aurora returns three all-conference honorable mention players from last season, finished second in conference (16-6 in the NAC, 27-16 overall), won the conference tournament and advanced to the D3 Championship Tournament last season.
Rockford, last season's NAC co-champion, was picked to finish second in the 2011 preseason poll.
2011 NAC Coaches Preseason Poll:
1. Aurora University
2. Rockford College
3. Edgewood
4. Concordia Chicago & Concordia Wisconsin
6. Benedictine
7. Lakeland
8. Marian
9. Dominician
10. MSOE & Wisconsin Lutheran
12. Maranatha
In the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) pre-season poll, Illinois Wesleyan was predicted to win the conference title in 2011.
The defending National Champion Titans (31-21, 12-9) finished fourth in the CCIW last season and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA D3 regional.
Voting is tabulated from the conference coaches, each coach has seven votes and cannot vote for their own team.
2011 Pre-Season CCIW Poll:
1. Illinois Wesleyan
2. Carthage
3. North Central
4. Wheaton
5. Augustana
6. North Park
7. Milikin
8. Elmhurst
University of Illinois Springfield baseball was picked to finish seventh in the west division in the Great Lakes Valley Conference pre-season poll released on Wednesday.
The Prairie Stars earned 18 points in the poll which tied them with Kentucky Wesleyan who was voted eighth.
Coach Brian Grunzke stated "It's not a surprise since UIS is in it's first year of the program."
