Yellow Jacket Baseball Picked Seventh in HCAC Poll

GREENWOOD, IND.  --  The Defiance College baseball team was picked to finish seventh in the 2017 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll. [2017 HCAC Preseason Poll]

The Yellow Jackets finished with 36 points to rank seventh of 10 teams heading into the spring.  Earlham (Ind.) College was picked as the favorite with 98 points and eight first-place votes.  Manchester (Ind.) University was second with 84 points and Rose-Hulman (Ind.) Institute of Technology rounded out the top three with 76 points and two first-place votes.

Last season, the Yellow Jackets finished with an 18-22 overall record and were sixth in the HCAC with an 11-16 mark.  

Defiance will return an experienced roster with 14 upperclassmen, led by nine seniors.  DC will also have four All-HCAC players in seniors Quinten Harrington (Sandusky/Perkins) and Nick Peters (Macomb, Mich./Eisenhower) who both earned second-team honors last year, as well as senior Zack Reed (Midland, Mich./Bullock Creek) and sophomore Michael Gilliland (Napoleon) who were both honorable mention picks.

The Jackets had five players named to the 2017 HCAC "Players to Watch" List that included Reed, Peters, Harrington and Gilliland.  Joining the quartet was senior Dave Blanch (Alliston, Ontario/Banting Memorial).

Defiance is scheduled to begin the 2017 season with a three-game series against non-conference opponent Centre (Ky.) College on Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 25-26.  The Jackets will play a doubleheader on Saturday with the first game scheduled to begin at noon, followed by a single game on Sunday that is slated to start at 1 p.m.  

DC will then travel to Ft. Myers, Fla. for its annual spring training trip to the Gene Cusic Classic.  The Yellow Jackets will begin play on Monday, Mar. 6 with a twinbill against Swarthmore (Pa.) College.