FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rams garner six of
nine first-place votes

WINTHROP, Mass. – Suffolk University has taken the top spot in the 2020 Great Northeast Athletic Conference Baseball Preseason Poll, as announced on Thursday by the league office. The Rams, who won four straight GNAC titles from 2015-18 before falling in last year's conference tournament, received six of the nine possible first-place votes for 76 points overall in the rank, which was voted upon by the league's head coaches.

Defending GNAC champion Saint Joseph's College of Maine, which last spring won its first conference title since winning five straight and six of seven from 2008-14, finished second in the preseason poll with 71 points and two first-place votes. Johnson & Wales University, which fell to SJC in last year's championship game, took the third spot with the remaining first-place tally and 67 points overall.

Championship Sunday last year between JWU and SJC was one for the ages, as the Wildcats forced the if-necessary game at Fraser Field in Lynn, Mass. with a 15-2 victory, before the Monks fought back with a thrilling 11-inning, 8-7 walkoff win for SJC's first NCAA Tournament appearance in five years. 

Suffolk, meanwhile, won four GNAC Championships in program history prior to former Rams righthander Anthony Del Prete taking over the program as head coach in 2015. Suffolk went on to win each of the next four GNAC titles since the takeover and earned the No. 1 seed in the 2019 GNAC Tournament, however the Rams lost a pair to SJC and JWU in the tourney last season to see its four-year NCAA berth run come to a close. 

The 2020 spring campaign will mark the final GNAC encounter for Suffolk baseball, as the university moves to the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) as a full member beginning with the 2020-21 academic year. 

Following the top-three, Anna Maria College landed fourth in the preseason poll with 48 points, just ahead of fifth-place Lasell University with 46 points.

Anna Maria, after going 0-14 in league play back in 2017, has posted six-win campaigns against GNAC foes each of the last two seasons, while Lasell will turn the reigns over to first-year head coach and Lasers alum Billy Uberti in 2020. 

Making up the remainder of the poll included Albertus Magnus College with 41 points, Colby-Sawyer College with 24 points, Norwich University with 22 points, and Rivier University with 10 points.

2020 GNAC Baseball Preseason Poll
1. Suffolk (6) - 76
2. Saint Joseph's Maine (2) - 71
3. Johnson & Wales (1) - 67
4. Anna Maria - 48
5. Lasell - 46
6. Albertus Magnus - 41
7. Colby-Sawyer - 24
8. Norwich - 22
9. Rivier - 10

The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III association made up of 13 member institutions and over 3,000 student-athletes across the New England region. Founded in 1995, the GNAC annually sponsors and administers 22 championships, while balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunity and community involvement in an effort to enhance the student-athlete experience. 

– #TheGNAC –