Cobras Picked Eighth in Conference Preseason Poll
HARTSVILLE, S.C. – The Coker College baseball team has been picked to finish eighth in the Conference Carolinas preseason poll, the league office announced today.
The Cobras are coming off a 23-23 campaign in 2012. Coker returns its top five pitchers and five starting position players from last year's squad. In addition, pitcher Zach Loraine and outfielder Ernie Kirkwood – who were both named to Collegiate Baseball's Players to Watch List – join the team.
Mount Olive College, which has won the conference the past three years, was picked as the preseason favorite. The Trojans earned 63 points and seven first-place votes. Belmont Abbey College came in at second with 54 points and one first-place vote.
The entire preseason poll is as follows: 1. Mount Olive College; 2. Belmont Abbey College; 3. King College; 4. Erskine College; 5. North Greenville University; 6. Limestone College; 7. Pfeiffer University; 8. Coker College; 9. Barton College.
Conference Carolinas is a NCAA Division II athletic conference made up of 12 teams from North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. These institutions are Barton College, Belmont Abbey College, Coker College, Converse College, Erskine College, King College, Lees-McRae College, Limestone College, Mount Olive College, North Greenville University, Pfeiffer University and Queens University of Charlotte.
For more information, contact Chris Dougherty, manager of athletics media relations, at 843-383-8018 or cdougherty@coker.edu.
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Coker College readies undergraduates for personal and professional success through a distinctive four-year program that emphasizes a practical application of the liberal arts as well as hands-on and discussion-based learning within and beyond the classroom. Coker is ranked among the "Best Colleges" in the South by U.S. News & World Report as well as The Princeton Review. Located in Hartsville, S.C., Coker is within two hours of the cultural, financial and recreational resources of Charlotte, Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach.