Jordan Sigman

Baseball begins season No. 4 in ABCA top-30 poll

ORANGE, Calif. - The Chapman University baseball team enters the new decade with a few streaks intact and one of those has been extended another year already. The Panthers will open the 2010 campaign ranked No. 4 in NCAA Division III according to the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA)/Collegiate Baseball top-30 poll. It is the seventh consecutive year Chapman has been ranked No. 4 or higher in the preseason.

In 2009 the Panthers opened the season ranked No. 2 in Division III but soon fell out of the top-25 altogether. Despite that fact, Chapman reached the NCAA playoffs for a seventh straight year, unranked, and went on to upset the competition, winning their fifth straight West Region title and finishing fourth at the NCAA championships in Appleton, Wis.

For the first time in five years Chapman's roster does not have an All-America selection returning. The Panthers graduated All-America selections Wayde Kitchens and Tristan Phillips, and outfielder John Semel left the program early via the MLB draft.

The Panthers do, however, return All-Independent selections junior OF Tyler Hadzinsky (.376, 18 2Bs, 36 RBI) and senior OF Ryan Prechtl (.315, 7 HR, 10 SBs), along with nine-game winner junior RHP Jordan Sigman (9-5, 5.29 ERA, 62 Ks).

Chapman's first big test of the season will come against No. 10 Pomona-Pitzer in a three-game series Feb. 26-27. The Panthers will also host a two-game series against No. 23 Ithaca in March and will play at No. 20 Cal Lutheran on April 25.

by Doug Aiken
Sports Information Director

For complete Collegiate Baseball preseason poll:
http://www.baseballnews.com/polls/divIII/currentpolldiviii.htm