DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle baseball team has been picked as the favorite to claim the 2010 Sun Conference regular season title according the preseason coaches poll released on Wednesday. The Eagles were a unanimous pick by the panel of league coaches as they received all nine first place votes for a total of 90 points.
Embry-Riddle won the regular season race in 2009, finishing at 18-4 in the league on the way to an NAIA World Series appearance and a 44-14 overall finish.
Warner and Savannah College of Art and Design each advanced to the NAIA National Championship Opening round in 2009 and were picked to finish second and third, respectively in this year’s conference battle. Warner finished as the league runner-up in 2009 (37-18 overall, 19-5 TSC) and was picked to finish second in 2010 with 75 points, followed closely by SCAD (39-23 overall, 16-8 TSC) with 72 points. South Carolina-Beaufort (58 points), St. Thomas (55 points), Webber International (41 points), Northwood (37 points), Southeastern (32 points), Florida Memorial (20 points) and Edward Waters (15 points) round out the poll.
Regular season play gets underway in the last week of January. The top six teams at the end of the regular season advance to the conference tournament being, which takes place May 9-12 in Fort Myers, Fla. The tournament champion receives an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round.