Patriots climb to Top 5 in baseball poll
Following a 4-1 week that included a road Peach Belt Conference series win over a Top 25 opponent, Francis Marion University moved up three positions to fifth in this week’s Collegiate Baseball Newspaper NCAA Division II Top 30 poll.
This marks the program’s eighth week in the Top 10 during the 2010 regular season. Francis Marion was listed 12th in Collegiate Baseball’s 2010 preseason poll and has been ranked eighth, seventh, third, second, ninth, 13th, 11th, 14th, ninth, and eighth in the previous regular-season polls.
Dating back to the 2005 season, the Patriots have appeared in 90 of the past 96 national polls.
Southern Arkansas University (38-4) remained in No. 1 spot in this week’s poll, while five PBC squads are ranked among the Top 20 programs.
Francis Marion owns a 35-10 overall record and is tied for the lead in the Peach Belt’s East Division standings. The Patriots have already secured the East Division’s No.1 seed for the PBC Tournament to be held May 8-9 in Aiken, S.C.
The team’s 35 victories equals the fourth-highest single-season total in program history, behind only the 2006 squad (41-18), last year’s team (38-15-1), and the 2007 team (36-18).
The Patriots will visit St. Andrews Presbyterian College (10-33-1) on Wednesday for a 3 p.m. contest. FMU beat the Knights 10-1 earlier this season in Florence and leads the all-time series 37-9.
FMU will then close out its regular-season by playing host to Georgia Southwestern State University for a three-game PBC series this weekend. The squads will play a doubleheader on Saturday at 1 p.m. and a Senior Day single game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
No. Team W-L Pts Previous 1. Southern Arkansas 38-4 480 1 2. Central Missouri 34-5 458 2 3. UC San Diego 37-6 450 T3 4. Florida Southern 37-6 436 5 5. Francis Marion 35-10 408 8 6. Tampa 39-8 400 T3 7. New Mexico Highlands 32-6 392 10 8. Mount Olive 38-9 364 11 9. Abilene Christian 38-10 340 6 10. Georgia College & State 29-12 328 12 Cal State Dominguez Hills 34-11 328 13 12. Emporia State 31-10 306 9 13. Columbus State 34-9 300 7 14. Valdosta State 35-12 262 17 15. West Chester 31-9 260 18 16. Southern Indiana 34-10 242 22 17. North Georgia 29-14 224 19 18. UNC Pembroke 29-13 186 21 Northern Kentucky 33-12 186 T29 20. Delta State 31-13-1 182 15 21. Incarnate Word 32-12 178 20 22. Erskine 37-14 132 T24 23. Winona State 27-7 130 23 24. Catawba 34-9 114 28 25. Minnesota State Mankato 27-9 98 27 26. Southern Connecticut State 27-8-1 56 NR 27. West Virginia State 21-6 44 RV 28. Rollins 29-15 42 RV 29. St. Mary's (Texas) 31-14 28 RV 30. Franklin Pierce 26-11 20 T29 Concord 22-5 20 RV
Also Receiving Votes: Cal State San Bernardino 12, Florida Tech 10, Cal State Chico 10, USC Aiken 8, Western Oregon 8, Barry 4, St. Cloud State 4, Wayne State (Mich.) 1, Grand Valley State 1, Wingate 1, Mansfield 1, Adelphi 1, West Florida 1, Mesa State 1, Nebraska - Kearney 1, Southeastern Oklahoma 1, Nebraska - Omaha 1, St. Edward's (Texas) 1, UT Permian Basin 1, Cameron 1.
