GREENVILLE, Pa. (pacathletics.org)--The Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) released the results of this season's PAC Preseason Baseball Coaches' Poll, along with its Players to Watch list, on Tuesday. Washington & Jefferson College and 20th-year head coach Jeff Mountain earned nine first-place votes and 90 total points to secure the top spot on the preseason poll.

The annual preseason poll collects votes from each of the league's 10 head coaches.

W&J enters the season No. 17 on the D3baseball.com/National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Preseason Top 25. 

W&J junior utility Tyler Horvat (Irwin, Pa. | Penn-Trafford) and senior pitcher Henry Litman (Marietta, Ga. | Walton) were named to the D3baseball.com Preseason All-American Team in January. Horvat and Litman both claimed First Team honors. W&J was the only school to put more than one student-athlete on the First Team. 

Grove City College, led by sixth-year head coach Matt Royer, finished second in the poll, securing the final first-place vote and 82 points. Saint Vincent College and 25th-year head coach Mick Janosko were picked third with 64 points. 

Franciscan University was fourth on the preseason poll with 62 points. Bethany College and Westminster College tied for fifth with 50 points. Thiel College was seventh (48), Waynesburg University was eighth (39), Chatham University was ninth (37) and Geneva College was 10th (18). 

W&J finished the 2021 season with a 37-3 overall record. The 37 wins represented the third most in a single-season in program history, trailing only the Division III College World Series teams from 2017 and 2019. With a 3-0 win over Saint Vincent College on May 15, W&J captured its 13th PAC title and punched its ticket to the Division III Championship for an eighth time. W&J finished 2021 with a Division III-best .925 winning percentage.

This year's PAC Championship Tournament is scheduled for Thursday-Saturday, May 12-14. The top seed coming out of the regular season will host the league's four-team, double-elimination tournament.

The PAC Championship Tournament winner will earn the conference's automatic qualifying bid to the Division III Championship. Selections for the Division III Championship are scheduled to be announced Monday, May 16 with regional preliminary round play slated for Friday-Monday, May 20-22. Regional champions will compete in the Super Regionals, a best-of-three series, to determine the eight participants in this year's Division III College World Series, scheduled for Friday-Wednesday, June 3-8. The Division III College World Series will be held at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.