Baseball | 2/25/2021 10:31:00 AM

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - Despite the season opener still just over two weeks away, the Bloomsburg University baseball team is still receiving votes according to the latest Division II rankings released by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). The Huskies received 10 votes in this week's poll.

Last month, Bloomsburg was ranked 21st in the country according to the Collegiate Baseball News preseason poll, and, earlier this month, the Huskies were third in the preseason NCBWA Atlantic Regional poll and were tabbed to finish third in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division according to votes from the league's head coaches.

Last year, Bloomsburg won nine of its ten games before the pandemic canceled the remainder of the 2020 campaign. The Huskies hit .323 as a team and scored 74 runs over the ten contests while the pitching staff limited the opposition to a .220 average and just 33 runs over the same time frame.

Bloomsburg, under the direction of head coach Mike Collins, returns nearly everyone from last year's roster as it looks to make a return trip to both the PSAC tournament and the NCAA championships. Collins also brought in 17 new faces - 10 pitchers - to battle for playing time and provide significant depth to the roster.

The Huskies won the PSAC title in 2019 - the program's first conference championship since 1965 - and has made back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Atlantic Regional tournament (2018 and 2019) for the first time in program history. Meanwhile, Collins, who has guided the Huskies to a 75-37 record since 2018, enters his 16th season as the skipper and is tied with Matt  Haney, Sr. for most coaching victories in program history with 314.

Bloomsburg is scheduled to open the 2021 campaign against Shepherd University in home-and-home doubleheaders on Friday, March 12, and Saturday, March 13. The Huskies will travel to Shepherd on Friday before hosting the Rams on Saturday at Danny Litwhiler Field. Both twinbills are scheduled to start at 12:00 p.m.

National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Preseason Poll
February 24, 2021
 

Rank	Institution (First-Place Votes)	Record	Points	Previous
1.	Angelo State (15)	4-1	470	1
2.	Tampa (3)	0-0	449	2
3.	North Greenville (1)	6-1	435	4
4.	Central Missouri	3-1	431	3
5.	Colorado Mesa	0-0	387	5
6.	Lindenwood	0-0	361	6
7.	Catawba	4-1	343	8
8.	East Stroudsburg	0-0	303	9
9.	Lee	8-1	293	20
10.	Southern Arkansas	2-1	288	10
11.	West Texas A&M	6-2	245	12
12.	Mount Olive	3-0	244	14
13.	Point Loma	0-0	234	13
14.	Barry	0-0	229	7
15.	Southern New Hampshire	0-0	228	11
16.	Azusa Pacific	0-0	198	16
17.	Ashland	0-0	184	15
18.	Missouri Southern	5-0	159	19
19.	Millersville	0-0	155	17
20.	Columbus State	2-0	127	18
21.	UT Tyler	4-2	82	21
22.	Shorter	7-2	74	RV
23.	Central Oklahoma	0-0	56	22
24.	North Georgia	8-1	55	RV
25.	Franklin Pierce	0-0	42	24

Also Receiving Votes: Davenport (0-0) 35 points, Concordia-Irvine (0-0) 29 points, Bloomsburg (0-0) 10 points, Georgia College (3-0) 10 points, Adelphi (0-0) 6 points, West Florida (5-3) 5 points, Colorado School of Mines (0-0) 4 points, Mercyhurst (0-0) 2 points, Augustana (0-0) 1 point, Le Moyne (0-0) 1 point.