|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31,
2008
Contact: Dwayne Hanberry, SCAC Interim Commissioner
RHODES
SELECTED TO WIN 2008 SCAC BASEBALL TITLE
SUWANEE,
Ga.
– Based on
voting by the head coaches in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
(SCAC), Rhodes
College
is the heavy favorite to win the 2008 conference baseball championship.
Coach Jeff Cleanthes' Lynx received eight of the 11 coaches’ first-place votes
followed by Millsaps College with two votes and Southwestern University
with the remaining first-place vote.
Rhodes, which won the SCAC Eastern Division
and posted its highest win total in the program history with a 36-10
finish in 2007, received the third-most votes of any school outside of the
top 25 in the NCBWA-D3baseball.com 2008 preseason Division III poll. The
Lynx spent six weeks ranked in the top 30 last season, reaching a high
ranking of 25th.
As for the division races, Rhodes received all six first-place votes and
is the unanimous pick in the East, while Trinity University is the
coaches' favorite in the West.
Three schools received first-place
votes in the polling among the West coaches. Trinity received three first-place votes while
Millsaps and Southwestern received one first-place vote each.
Birmingham-Southern
College makes its debut this season in the SCAC. The Panthers, who are in
their first season as a provisional member of Division III, return to the
diamond after not fielding a team in 2007. Coach
Jan
Weisberg was named BSC head coach in 2006 after spending one season as the
head coach at Transylvania University.
Individually, the SCAC returns three ABCA All-Americans in seniors Daniel
Vanaman and Robert Flanagan of Rhodes and Hunter Owen of Millsaps, who
were also all
named D3baseball.com preseason All-Americans entering the 2008 campaign.
Last season,
Vanaman became the
first player in SCAC history to lead the league in batting average in
consecutive years and Owen
was the
National College Baseball Writers
Association South Region Player-of-the-Year. Flanagan and Owen are
the reigning SCAC Pitcher and Player-of-the-Year, respectively.
After the
successful debut of SCAC Divisional Tournament, the league returns to
Millington USA Field in Memphis, Tennessee for the 2008 tournament. Last
season, only a Rhodes victory over Trinity in three games kept the West
from sweeping the event. Austin College, Millsaps and Southwestern
University each won their best-of-three series and, along with Rhodes,
advanced to the SCAC Baseball Championships in Georgetown, Texas the
following weekend.
At the 2007 Baseball Championships, Austin College swept through the
tournament undefeated, culminating with a come-from-behind, 9-7, victory
over Millsaps in the title game,
earning the school a
championship in its first year as a member of the conference. The victory
marked the culmination of an incredible turnaround for the program, just
four years removed from a 2-36 record.
Seeded seventh at the NCAA West Regional, Austin College was eliminated
with losses to Pacific Lutheran and to Pomona-Pitzer in extra-innings.
|
2008 SCAC
BASEBALL PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH |
|
EASTERN DIVISION |
| |
Vote Totals |
'07 Overall Record |
'07 Division Record |
| 1.Rhodes College |
36 (6) |
36-10
(.783) |
14-2
(.875) 1st |
| 2.DePauw University |
29 |
25-17
(.595) |
11-5
(.688) 2nd |
| T-3.Centre College |
20 |
17-25
(.405) |
7-8
(.467) 3rd |
| T-3.Oglethorpe
University |
20 |
10-32
(.238) |
5-10 (.333)
4th |
| 5.*Birmingham-Southern
College |
12 |
n/a |
n/a |
| 6.Sewanee-University of
the South |
9 |
4-29
(.121) |
1-13 (.071)
5th |
| |
|
|
|
|
WESTERN DIVISION |
| |
Vote Totals |
'07 Overall Record |
'07 Division Record |
| 1.Trinity University |
20 (3) |
19-22
(.463) |
7-8
(.467) 4th |
| 2.Millsaps College |
19 (1) |
35-11
(.761) |
12-4
(.750) 1st |
| 3.Austin College |
17 |
22-25
(.468) |
9-6 (.600)
2nd |
| 4.Southwestern
University |
14 (1) |
19-24
(.442) |
9-7
(.563) 3rd |
| 5.Hendrix College |
5 |
13-24-1
(.355) |
2-14
(.125) 5th |
| |
Note:
In the East, first-place votes
(in parentheses) were worth six points, second-place votes worth
five, third-place votes worth four, fourth-place votes worth three, fifth-place worth
two and sixth-place votes were worth one point.
In the West, first-place votes
(in parentheses) were worth five points, second-place votes worth
four, third-place votes worth three, fourth-place votes worth two
and fifth-place votes were worth one point.
Predicted order of finish was selected
exclusively by the conference’s head coaches. |
|
*Birmingham-Southern did not field a team last season. Games against
BSC will count in the division standings, but BSC is not eligible
for conference post-season play. |
|