Baseball Picked First in NECC Coaches Poll
MANSFIELD, Mass. – With nine points and three-first place votes, the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) coaches have selected defending champions Mitchell College to take home the 2022 crown in the NECC Baseball Preseason Poll.
Travis Beausoleil, the 2021 NECC Coach of the Year, returns for his 11th season managing the Mariners. Mitchell, which went 26-9 overall and 14-2 in conference play in 2021, returns a host of experienced starters including 2021 All-American and NECC Player of the Year Dougie DelaCruz. The senior hit .430 with a league-leading 58 RBI and eight home runs in 2021. DelaCruz was recently named to the D3baseball.com Preseason All-America team. First team all-conference outfielder Hunter Yaworski will also return, fresh off a season in which he led the league in batting average (.457) and home runs (8). Battery mates Matt Falk and Camren Varney will be back together after both earned first team honors in 2021. Varney led the league with a 2.21 ERA, while Falk allowed only three passed balls and had a perfect fielding percentage behind the plate.
In the second spot belonged to New England College, which collected seven total points and the remaining first-place vote. Head coach Terry Doyle will lead an experienced squad that went 13-3 in conference play in 2021. Among the returners are three graduate students who were all first team All-NECC performers in 2021 in Michael Ciccotelli, Shaun Cormier and Connor Morin. Morin led the league with a .623 on-base percentage in conference play, while Ciccotelli was fifth in the league with a .339 batting average in conference play. Cormier was second in the league with a 3.56 ERA.
Eastern Nazarene College took the third spot with five total points. The Lions are led by head coach Chris Shank, who coached his squad to an 7-9 record in an abbreviated 2021 season. Graduate student Briley Seiter returns to the mound for the Lions, as he comes off a season in which he earned second team All-NECC honors. Seiter allowed only one earned run in three appearances.
Lesley University, led by third-year head coach Seth Kaplan, rounds out the poll with three points in the fourth spot. The Lynx will feature a young squad and will look to senior Ian Spillane for leadership. Spillane hit .391, good for second on Lynx, in a condensed 2021 season.
The 2022 NECC Baseball Championship will be held Friday, May 6 through Sunday, May 8.
2022 Baseball Coaches' Preseason Poll
- Mitchell – 9 (3)
- New England Col. – 7 (1)
- Eastern Nazarene- 5
- Lesley- 3
ABOUT THE NECC
The NECC began competition in the 2008-09 academic year and current member institutions compete across 16 sports. The NECC membership focuses on providing athletic competition among institutions that share similar academic aspirations and are committed to the importance of the total educational experience for students engaged in sport. For more information, please visit neccathletics.com
