Series last spring. PHOTO BY BRIAN HOFFMAN
Fresh off its most successful season in program history, the Roanoke College Baseball team has been ranked 10th among NCAA Division III teams in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s pre-season national poll.
The Maroons are one of two, and the highest ranking ODAC member in the top-40 poll. RC received 258 points, just four points behind Wooster for ninth-place and nine points behind St. Thomas (Minn.), which landed in eighth.
After earning a spot in last season’s ODAC Tournament on the final day of the regular season, the Maroons dropped their opening game of the tournament to top seeded Shenandoah. The Maroons beat Hampden-Sydney the next day to spark one of the greatest runs in the history of Roanoke College Athletics. After beating the Tigers, RC knocked off Randolph-Macon to set up a championship Monday showdown where the Maroons beat Washington & Lee twice to secure the first league championship in school history.
Roanoke moved onto its first NCAA South Regional where the Maroons beat perennial regional powers, Salisbury, Emory and LaGrange to advance to the championship round. They then knocked off Salisbury again to advance to the NCAA Division III World Series in Appleton, Wisconsin.
RC became the first ODAC team ever to win a World Series game when the Maroons beat top-seeded Oswego State. Roanoke also earned a win against Concordia to finish in the Final Four of the tournament.
Following the season, RC was voted the number three team in the nation by D3baseball.com. Roanoke’s 35 wins last season is tied for third-most in ODAC history.
Roanoke will open its 2018 slate with a three-game series at Maryville (Tenn.) Feb. 10-11.