MARSHALL, Texas – For the first time in program history, East Texas Baptist University has been chosen as the favorite to win the American Southwest Conference baseball championship. ETBU edged out Texas Dallas by four points for the top spot voted on by the head coaches and college sports communicators of the ASC.
 
ETBU started practice on January 17 for the 2023 season in Jared Hood's ninth year as head coach. He said this about the first day, "It was good to be with the guys out on the field and to get after it a little bit and get out there and compete together."
 
There were 20 first place votes cast for the preseason poll and ETBU received 10 while Texas Dallas had nine. Overall, ETBU came away with 189 points while Texas Dallas had 185 points. Mary Hardin-Baylor was third with 147 points as McMurry was fourth at 133 points and one first-place vote. Concordia Texas rounded out the top five with 117 points.
 
Last year, ETBU won the program's first-ever ASC regular season championship and then finished second in the ASC Gold Bracket Championship to Texas Dallas. They finished the season at 33-13 and won a program best 24 ASC games.
 
Coming into this season, they have two preseason national rankings which is also a first for the program. They are 21^st in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper ranking and 24^th in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA poll.
 
On the ASC Players to Watch list for position players are Jase Jones and Brett Wagner and on the Pitchers to Watch is Sayers Collins. All three players were on the D3baseball.com All-Region team last year with Collins being named an All-American. Collins is also a D3baseball.com Preseason All-American.
 
ETBU opens the 2023 season on February 10 hosting Millikin University in a three-game series.