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Marietta College received its second preseason national ranking as the Etta Express is No. 3 in the D3baseball.com/NCBWA (National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association) Preseason Top-25 released Wednesday evening. The Pioneers were also ranked No. 3 in the Collegiate Baseball Preseason Poll that was released in December.
Salisbury earned 24 of the 25 first place votes and is the preseason No. 1 team. The defending national champions received 622 total points. SUNY Cortland is ranked second with 580 points and Marietta is third with 548 points.
The rest of the top 10 includes Johns Hopkins (473 points), Adrian (433), Wisconsin-Whitewater (418), Birmingham-Southern (394), Aurora (378), Washington University (334) and Eastern Connecticut State (330).
The Etta Express posted a 38-6 record last spring and advanced to the Regional Championship game before falling to Rowan University. Marietta went 30-3 in the Ohio Athletic Conference winning the regular season and tournament championships.
The Pioneers will once again play one of the toughest schedules in the nation. Four opponents on the 2022 schedule are ranked in the preseason poll including No. 14 Webster, No. 17 Washington & Jefferson, No. 20 North Central (Ill.), and No. 21 Denison. Six others are receiving votes in the poll including Misericordia, Keystone, Mount Union, Saint John's (Minn.), Baldwin Wallace and Swarthmore.
Marietta opens the 2022 season at the D3 Showcase in Kannapolis, North Carolina. The Pioneers play Christopher Newport on February 25th and then face off against Keystone and Washington and Lee on the 26th.
Following a trip to the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Florida, March 6-12, the Etta Express opens at home on March 23rd against La Roche University. The OAC opener is set for March 26th when Ohio Northern University visits Pioneer Park.