The Northern Kentucky University baseball team was picked to finish eighth in the 2015 Atlantic Sun Conference Preseason Poll, the league office announced.
Kennesaw State, which captured the 2014 Atlantic Sun Championship title and advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals, was tabbed to take the top spot with six first-place votes and 61 total points. Regular-season champion Florida Gulf Coast was picked to finish second with 55 points and one top-spot vote.
Lipscomb came in third in the coaches poll, receiving the final first-place vote to enhance 48 points, while North Florida and Jacksonville rounded out the top five with 38 and 31 points, respectively. Stetson received 29 points for a sixth-place preseason prediction, while USC Upstate was selected to finish in seventh place just above the Norse.
NKU finished the 2014 season with a 14-37 overall record and a 6-21 mark in the Atlantic Sun in its second season of NCAA Division I action. The Norse return five players who batted over .275 last season, including junior Logan Spurlin, who boasted a .350 batting average to lead the team and rank 10th in the Atlantic Sun. He hit 16 doubles and four home runs, and he drove in 32 runs while scoring 26 times for the Norse.
Senior Cole Bauml returns for his final season after batting .337 and earning second-team All-Atlantic Sun honors last year. He led the team with a .567 slugging percentage, which finished fifth among conference players, and he recorded 18 doubles, one triple, seven home runs, 38 RBIs and seven stolen bases.
Redshirt senior and left-handed pitcher Matt Jefferson will return to the mound for NKU this season after posting a 4.76 earned run average and team-best 51 strikeouts as a junior in 2013. He will be joined by senior right-hander Wendell Wright, who collected two victories and one save last season for the Norse. Wright recorded a 6.49 ERA and struck out 27 batters over 16 appearances, while fellow senior and lefty Cody Cooper returns for his final season in the Black and Gold after recording a team-leading 43 strikeouts over 85.2 innings on the mound last season.
NKU begins the 2015 season Feb. 13-15 with a three-game series against Campbell in Buies Creek, North Carolina. The Norse will play their first 15 games on the road before opening up the home portion of their schedule against IPFW on March 11 at the Bill Aker Baseball Complex.
From NKU Athletics