Gorloks Tabbed Top Team in Perfect Game Preseason Poll

After being ranked No. 2 in both the Preseason ABCA/Collegiate Baseball and D3Baseball.com polls, Webster University Baseball enters the 2020 season ranked No. 1 in Division III by Perfect Game, according to its Preseason Top 25 poll released recently by the organization.
 
Webster, who have advanced to the NCAA Regional Tournament 12 times in the last 14 years welcomes back seven position starters, five of its top six pitchers and 27 lettermen from last year's squad that captured its 13th consecutive St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular-season title, its 10th all-time SLIAC Tournament title and also captured both the Whitewater NCAA Regional and Concordia-Chicago Super Regional championships a season ago en route to advancing to the Division III World Series for the fourth in the last eight years.
 
The Gorloks, who went 37-13 last season, is one of two teams ranked in the Top 20 of the preseason from the SLIAC as Spalding, who shared the regular-season SLIAC title with Webster last season, opens the season ranked No. 18 by Perfect Game. Following Webster in the poll is Wisconsin-Whitewater at No. 2, while Wooster (Ohio) is at No. 3 and Cortland State and Southern Maine round out the Top 5 and No. 4 and No. 5 respectively.
 
Defending Division III National Champion Chapman, who is ranked No. 1 in both the ABCA/Collegiate Baseball and D3Baseball.com polls, opens the season ranked 21st in the Perfect Game rankings while defending D-III National Runner-up Birmingham-Southern opens the season ranked 18th by Perfect Game.
 
Webster, who began preseason practice on Jan. 27, will open the 2020 season in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday, Feb. 21 against Transylvania University at 10:30 a.m., while Webster's first home game of the 2020 season at GCS Credit Union Ballpark in Sauget, Ill., is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 28 against preseason Concordia-Chicago at 2 p.m. Concordia-Chicago is ranked 15th in the Perfect Game preseason poll.