The Milwaukee Panthers continued to garner respect in pre-season voting for the rapidly approaching 2011 season.
We already knew back in December that UWM was placed in the "other teams receiving votes" for Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's Div. I Top 40 poll, but the Panthers have now been recognized by two other sources.
The Horizon League coaches selected the Panthers to finish second behind Wright State.
Some might see this as more of an insult than an honor since the Panthers are returning a number of key players that led them to the NCAA Tournament a year ago. However, both teams received three first-place votes and Wright State had the slightest of leads on UWM at 32-31. Illinois-Chicago received the last first place vote.
The complete Poll is as follows:
2011 Horizon League Preseason Baseball Poll:1. Wright State (3 first-place votes) -- 32 points
2. Milwaukee (3) -- 31
3. UIC (1) -- 27
4. Valparaiso -- 24
T5. Butler -- 13
T5. Youngstown State -- 13
7. Cleveland State -- 7
CollegeBaseballInsider.com does a feature on every DI college baseball conference across the nation, for the Horizon league they connected with four out of the seven coaches to get results on; the best team, best starting pitchers, top closer, to defenders, and more.
The four coaches that placed a vote put the Panthers as the team to beat in the league. It would be very interesting to see which three coaches didn't place a ballot for this, as they clearly are the ones who did not regard the Panthers as the top team.
Chad Pierce, the Panthers ace, was named as one of the league's top three starters. Casey Henn of Wright State and Mike Hernandez of Butler were the others.
Cameron Amsrud was named the league's top closer and Scott Doffek was tied for the best game coach along with Wright State's Rob Cooper.
It is tough for me to comment on the rest of the selections as I have not seen a lot of the players from around the conference play, but I believe more Panthers could have easily been recognized. Doug Dekoning can really cover some ground in center field and very well could have been included amongst the top defensive outfielders.
Jayme Sukowaty might not have the overpowering stuff and strikeout numbers that you would want from a pitcher, but he can flat out pitch. Definitely one of the more underrated pitchers in the league.
We are going to provide a major focus on the Panthers this week with their season kicking off on Friday. Keep checking out the page this week as we preview the Panthers and take a closer look at some position battles.
Also does anybody know if the game against Tennessee will be web cast anywhere? Feel free to comment if you know the answer.
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