WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Returning two All-Americas and three additional All-New England players from  its 35^th NCAA Division III tournament qualifier, the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team is ranked No. 9 in the 2022 Collegiate Baseball Division III pre-season poll, released today.
 
Ranked first in the final six New England polls and 19^th in the final D3baseball.com poll of 2021, Eastern was ranked first among five New England teams ranked in the 2022 pre-season Top 40. Six additional teams from New England also received votes in the poll. Defending national champion Salisbury University was ranked first in the poll. Last year's runner-up, University of St. Thomas, moved up to Division I. Last year's national semifinalist, SUNY Cortland, was second in the 2022 poll.
 
This year, Eastern was ranked in the Collegiate Baseball pre-season Top 40 for the first time since a No. 17 ranking prior to the 2015 season. In 2012, the Warriors were also ranked ninth in the poll  and first among New England teams after coming off a 34-13 season in 2011. In 2010, Eastern capped a run of four straight Top 10 pre-season ratings with a No. 3 ranking after winning 39 of 47 games in 2009 and earning the No. 1 seed in the NCAA New England Regional tournament.
 
In its third season under D3baseball.com New England Coach-of-the-Year Brian Hamm in 2021, Eastern (32-8) won the Little East Conference regular-season title and qualified on an at-large basis for the NCAA Division III tournament. After receiving votes in the eighth national poll of the year with a 15-2 record in its first national poll appearance last season, Eastern appeared in the final six polls, including a season-high No. 12 rating with a 31-4 record after winning its Little East playoff pod with wins over the University of Massachusetts Boston and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
 
Two ABCA Division III All-Americas are expected to return in 2022 for Eastern in senior third baseman Luke Broadhurst (Stafford), and senior leftfielder John Mesagno (Tappan, NY). In addition to being New England and Little East Player-of-the-Year, Broadhurst was a second-team All-America and Mesagno was named to the third team. Expected returning All-New England selections are senior lefty pitcher Aidan Dunn (Westfield, MA), junior righty Nathan Furino (East Haven), and senior shortstop Owen Marica (Haddam).
 
Last year, Broadhurst batted .397 with 108 total bases, Mesagno .387 with 114 total bases and Marica .317 with a team-high 102 assists and a .952 fielding percentage. Dunn was 5-0 with 43 strikeouts in 39 2/3 innings and a staff-high 0.91. Furino was 3-1 with four saves, 40 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings and a 2.28 ERA. Also back is junior righty Billy Oldham (Brookfield), one of the staff's most effective pitchers in conference and NCAA post-season play last year. Oldham finished 4-1 with 66 strikeouts in a staff-high 66 1/3 innings last year.
 
Eastern opens its season March 5 with a non-conference doubleheader at Hood College.
 
COLLEGIATE BASEBALL
NCAA Division III
2022 Pre-Season Poll

Rank	Team (2021 Final Record)	Points
1.	Salisbury (34-4)	297
2.	Cortland St. (33-9)	285
3.	Marietta (38-6)	284
4.	Chapman (15-6)	280
5.	Johns Hopkins (15-6)	276
6.	Aurora (38-8)	273
7.	Birmingham-Southern, AL (28-16)	270
8.	Adrian (37-10)	266
9.	EASTERN CONN. (32-8)	265
10.	Pacific, OR (34-15)	263
11.	Wisconsin-Whitewater (40-7)	260
12.	Southern Maine (34-11)	256
13.	N.C. Wesleyan (33-10)	252
14.	Northwestern-St. Paul (35-12)	250
15.	Denison (27-13)	248
16.	Rowan (29-6)	245
17.	Washington-St. Louis (34-6)	242
18.	Texas-Dallas (30-12)	239
19.	Tufts (15-8)	236
20.	Misericordia (31-10)	232
21.	Trinity, TX (28-9)	230
22.	York, PA (28-10)	227
23.	Webster (37-8)	223
24.	Salve Regina (16-7-1)	220
25.	Lynchburg (36-15)	219
26.	Scranton (20-11)	217
27.	Oswego St. (25-7)	213
28.	Washington & Jefferson (37-3)	210
29.	Wheaton, MA (21-7)	207
30.	U.S. Merchant Marine Acad. (18-5)	203
31.	LaGrange (24-10)	200
32.	Texas Lutheran (30-14)	197
33.	Luther (32-15)	195
34.	Penn State Behrend (27-13)	192
35.	Penn State Harrisburg (29-9)	189
36.	St. John Fisher (31-7)	187
37.	Rochester (24-10)	185
38.	Transylvania (32-12)	182
39.	Illinois College (21-19)	179
40.	Saint Mary's, MN (30-16)	175
Also Receiving Votes: Mitchell (CT), Husson (ME), Cal. Lutheran (CA), Stevens Inst. of Technology (NJ), Pacific Lutheran (WA), Brockport St. (NY), William Paterson (NJ), Shenandoah (VA), Berry (GA), Salem St. (MA), Endicott (MA), Alvernia (PA), SUNY Cobleskill (NY), Johnson & Wales-Providence (RI), Marymount (VA), Millikin (IL), Methodist (NC), Beloit (WI), North Central (IL), Willamette (OR), Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (IN), Wooster (OH), Hope (MI), Christopher Newport (VA), Rhodes (TN), Wilson (PA), Westfield St. (MA), Lebanon Valley (PA).