MARSHALL, Texas – Earning respect in the South and West Regions, East Texas Baptist University baseball is in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's Preseason Poll at ranked at 21^st. It is the first time in program history to receive a preseason national ranking.
 
ETBU is the only American Southwest Conference program ranked in the preseason poll receiving 230 votes. They are just 31 votes shy of being in the top 10. Texas Dallas and Mary Hardin-Baylor are receiving votes. Other West and South Region teams ranked in the top 25 are LaGrange (2), Trinity (3), Birmingham Southern (4), Chapman (Calif.) at fifth, and California Lutheran (20). Rounding out the top 40 is Pomona-Pitzer at 28^th and Centenary (La.) is 36th.
 
It was a historic year in 2021 for ETBU as they won the ASC regular season championship, hosted both the ASC Blue and Gold Bracket Championship, finished as ASC Tournament runners-up, and received the program's first-ever national ranking at 25^th in the D3baseball.com poll in March. ETBU went 33-13 and won 24 ASC games.
 
ETBU's 2023 schedule features #2 LaGrange and #4 Birmingham along with Texas Dallas, Mary Hardin-Baylor, and Texas Lutheran who are all receiving votes. ETBU also plays Hendrix College (29 wins), Centenary (27 wins) and both Millikan (Ill.) and Huntington (Ala.) who posted over 20 wins last year.  
 
The season opens on February 10 hosting Millikin in a three-game series at Woods Field.
 

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Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Preseason Poll - December 21, 2022
 

Rank	Team (2022 Final Record)	Points
1.	Salisbury (39-12)	298
2.	LaGrange (44-9)	283
3.	Trinity, TX (38-13)	282
4.	Birmingham-Southern (41-10)	280
5.	Chapman (35-14)	276
6.	Wisconsin-Whitewater (36-11)	273
7.	Eastern Connecticut St. (49-3)	270
8.	Marietta (44-7)	265
9.	Baldwin Wallace (37-13)	263
10.	Endicott (40-10)	261
11.	Arcadia (40-9)	260
12.	Rowan (33-10)	256
13.	Webster (38-8)	253
14.	Catholic Univ. of America (34-16)	250
15.	Oswego St. (33-13)	249
16.	William Paterson (31-15)	245
17.	Lynchburg (36-12)	242
18.	Denison (35-11)	240
19.	Cortland St. (35-12)	236
20.	Cal. Lutheran (30-16)	233
21.	East Texas Baptist (33-13)	230
22.	Wooster (35-17)	227
23.	Ithaca (34-14)	223
24.	Shenandoah (37-12-1)	221
25.	Aurora (36-11)	219
26.	Wisc.-Stevens Point (42-10)	217
27.	Washington & Jefferson (37-10)	214
28.	Pomona-Pitzer (32-14)	210
29.	North Central (35-14)	208
30.	Christopher Newport (27-14)	203
31.	Wheaton, MA (32-12)	200
32.	Bethel, MN (35-11)	197
33.	La Verne (30-12-1)	195
34.	Penn. State Harrisburg (30-17)	194
35.	Immaculata (29-14)	189
36.	Centenary, LA (27-19)	187
37.	Husson (25-17)	185
38.	Southern Maine (23-19)	179
39.	Wisconsin-La Crosse (24-18)	175
40.	Crown (30-15)	172
Also Receiving Votes: Franklin (29-14), Earlham (26-13), Salve Regina (30-12-2), Augustana, IL (34-12), Mount Aloysius (27-15), Brockport St. (33-11), Montclair St. (31-13), Lawrence (26-13), Texas Lutheran (28-14), Milwaukee School of Engineering (27-18), Lebanon Valley (30-16), St. John Fisher (31-16), Stevens Institute of Tech. (29-16), Pacific, OR (28-18), Middlebury (31-14), Texas-Dallas (35-17), Kalamazoo (27-13), Rochester (31-13), Mitchell (31-13), Johns Hopkins (20-18), Methodist (26-16), Otterbein (27-15), Franklin & Marshall (25-14), Hope (28-10), Rose-Hulman (28-13), Hendrix (29-15), Cabrini (31-11), Buena Vista (27-14), Wilson (31-11), Tufts (24-12), Colby (24-13), Mary Hardin-Baylor (25-19), York, PA (24-19), Ripon (20-23), Plattsburgh St. (21-17), Pacific Lutheran (22-18), Swarthmore (23-19), Penn St. Behrend (27-15), Anderson (20-21), New England (24-16), Saint John's, MN (24-17), DePauw (22-17), Scranton (28-12-1), Belhaven (28-16), Adrian (21-20), Babson (25-14), UMass. Boston (26-17), Misericordia (28-17), Loras (32-11), Rhodes (26-18-1), Skidmore (23-12-2).