QU Baseball Picked to Finish Second in MAAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, Four Named to Preseason All-MAAC Team
2/3/2016 9:50:00 AM | Baseball
EDISON, New Jersey - The Quinnipiac baseball team has been selected to finish second in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in the Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll and four players were named to the Preseason All-MAAC Team, as announced by the league office on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016.
Thomas Jankins (West Brookfield, Massachusetts) was selected to the preseason team as the only pitcher, Mike Palladino (Rockville Centre, New York) was named as one of four outfielders, Matthew Batten (Shelton, Connecticut) was selected at shortstop and Lou Iannotti (North Haven, Connecticut) made it at catcher.
In the poll, the Bobcats received three first place votes for the first time as a member of the MAAC as well as 109 points in the poll, just five points behind Canisius who was selected as the preseason favorite to win the championship. The Bobcats have not been picked to finish second in a conference preseason poll since the 2008 season when they were a member of the Northeast Conference. Quinnipiac has risen up the ranks since joining the MAAC for the 2014 season where they were picked to finish 11th and last season were picked to finish fifth.
Following the Golden Griffins and the Bobcats as Siena with 98 points and one first place vote. Monmouth was picked to finish fourth with 77 points while Marist followed with 69 points and one first place vote. Manhattan trailed Marist by one point to finish sixth in the poll followed by Rider with 60 points in seventh and Fairfield with 49 points in eighth. Iona, Niagara and Saint Peter's rounded out the final three spots of the preseason poll with 42, 30 and 16 points, respectively.
Preseason Coaches' Poll
| 1. | Canisius (6) | 114 |
| 2. | Quinnipiac (3) | 109 |
| 3. | Siena (1) | 98 |
| 4. | Monmouth | 77 |
| 5. | Marist (1) | 69 |
| 6. | Manhattan | 68 |
| 7. | Rider | 60 |
| 8. | Fairfield | 49 |
| 9. | Iona | 42 |
| 10. | Niagara | 30 |
| 11. | Saint Peter's | 16 |
The preseason All-MAAC selections are the first of their careers for all four players and the second straight season the Bobcats had a player named to the preseason All-MAAC team after Vincent Guglietti was named last season.
As a sophomore, Jankins led the Bobcats rotation with a 6-5 record in a team-high 13 starts. Jankins posted an ERA of 3.20 after allowing just 30 earned runs in 84 1/3 innings for the Bobcats where he struck out 53 batters compared to just 26 walks.
Palladino was one of the top offensive weapons for the Bobcats, picking up a Division I program record 26 stolen bases and finishing second on the team with a .313 batting average. Palladino also hit a team-high 16 doubles, was second on the team with 65 hits and scored 42 runs while finishing second among team qualifiers with a .402 on base percentage.
Batten was right behind Palladino in 2015 with 22 stolen bases, the second most in a single season in Quinnipiac baseball's Division I era. He batted .303 with a team-high 67 hits, 37 runs scored, 34 RBIs and 16 walks.
Iannotti has been the Bobcats' backstop for the past two seasons, batting .279 as a junior with one home run, 11 doubles and 36 RBIs. Iannotti recorded 55 hits with 26 runs scored while walking eight times and swiping nine bases.
The Quinnipiac baseball team opens up the 2016 season with a four-game series at Appalachian State in Boone, North Carolina beginning on Friday, Feb. 26 at 3 P.M.
Players Mentioned
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