BIDDEFORD, Maine – Two-time reigning Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) Baseball Tournament Champion Salve Regina will be the 2022 preseason favorite based on the voting conducted by the league's nine baseball head coaches last week.

The Seahawks received 74 points in the voting, including four of the nine first place votes.

Salve Regina went 7-2-1 in CCC play (16-7-1 overall) last year in an abbreviated season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite the struggles, the Seahawks were able to qualify for the 2021 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship and went 2-2 at the Hartford Regional earning wins against Southern Maine and Johnson and Wales.

Even though the Salve is favored to win the title, the quest of the conference championship is expected be a treacherous one as three other teams also received first place votes.

Ranking second in this year's poll is Endicott, which earned 71 points and two first place votes after a 9-3 CCC (15-6 overall) season in 2021. Meanwhile, Roger Williams and Nichols landed in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots, respectively, in this year's poll. The Hawks earned 65 points and a two first place votes, while the Bison received 53 points and the last first place vote. Western New England placed fifth in the poll with 43 points.

Closing out the poll were Suffolk (41 points) in sixth place, Curry (21) in seventh place, and Gordon and Wentworth tied for eighth place with 19 points apiece.

First pitch for CCC baseball teams is Saturday, Feb. 26 with Endicott and Nichols starting their non-conference schedules. The league schedule begins a month later on Saturday, March 26. The top seven teams as the end of the regular-season will qualify for the 2022 CCC Baseball Championship Tournament, which begins with a play-in game between the No. 6 and No. 7 seeds on Monday, May 9. The tournament will then continue into the double-elimination phase, which runs through Saturday, May 14 when a CCC Tournament Champion will be crowned. The CCC Baseball Tournament Champion will earn the right to represent the league in the 2022 NCAA Division III Baseball Championship as the CCC automatic qualifier. 

2022 CCC Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll

2022 CCC Baseball Previews

Contributed by each school's sports information department.

1. Salve Regina

Winners of four of the last five Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) baseball championships, Salve Regina University totaled 220 points to earn the No. 24 national ranking in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper 2022 Pre-Season Poll.

Ninth-year head coach Eric Cirella: "The team has done a great job working hard and working smart into the winter months, but we need to look at this and think we should be higher, or we still have a lot to prove because two things are going to happen. We're going to enter the season with a target on our back and get everyone's best game. And we're going to play a very challenging schedule that will humble us quickly."

Cirella announced his five captains from four different graduating classes - Dylan Ketch (Clinton, Conn.), Patrick Maybach (Saunderstown, R.I.), Dustin Siqueira (Trumbull, Conn.), Tommy DelVecchio (Westfield, N.J.), and Brandon Grover (Ashland, Mass.). Maybach led the team in innings pitched (39.1) and Grover had the best batting average in 2020 (.390). The Seahawks, among those receiving votes in the 2022 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Preseason Top 25, open the season with a twin bill against No. 13 University of Southern Maine.

Salve Regina baseball last met then No. 11 Southern Maine in the 2021 NCAA Regional Championships in Hartford. Dominic Perachi (Washington Depot, Conn.) retired the first nine batters he faced against nationally-ranked Huskies while Grover and Sean O'Malley (Darian, Conn.) took care of things at the plate with three hits and two runs batted in apiece.

Aside from the pandemic-shortened 2020, last season Salve Regina played its fewest games (24) since 1992 when the Seahawks finished 15-7-1. Matt D'Amato (Midland Park, N.J.) led the Seahawks in runs scored (24) and stolen bases (six).