Baseball Picked Fourth in Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll; Begin Season Friday at #4/5 Georgia

Photo by: Keith Lucas

Baseball Picked Fourth in Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll; Begin Season Friday at #4/5 Georgia

02/11/2020 | Baseball

RICHMOND, Va. – Tuesday morning, the Atlantic 10 office announced the preseason poll conducted by the league's head coaches, with Spiders picked to finish fourth in the 13-team league. 2019's Regular Season Champion, VCU, was picked to repeat and the 2019 Atlantic 10 Tournament winner and representative in the NCAA Tournament, Fordham, finished second in the voting. Spider baseball, coming off of a 28-25-1 season, 13-8 in the Atlantic 10, and another trip to the Atlantic 10 Tournament in 2019, are set to begin the 2020 campaign Friday afternoon.

The Dayton Flyers were the other team picked ahead of the Spiders. Trailing Richmond, in order include Saint Louis, Rhode Island, George Washington, Saint Joseph's, George Mason, UMass, La Salle and St. Bonaventure.

**2020 Preseason Poll**
Rank	Team	Votes (First Place Votes)
1.	VCU ^	162 (8)
2.	Fordham ^	149 (2)
3.	Dayton	144 (3)
4.	Richmond	123
5.	Davidson ^	112
6.	Saint Louis	111
7.	Rhode Island	97
8.	George Washington ^	73
9.	Saint Joseph's ^	71
10.	George Mason ^	52
11.	UMass ^	37
12.	La Salle ^	31
13.	St. Bonaventure	21

^ - Denotes Spider opponent for the 2020 season

The 2020 Spiders return 23 letterwinners from last season's team, including two-thirds of the weekend rotation. Tim Miller (Wayne, Pa.) will get the ball Friday night, the third-straight season he will be the opening day starter on the hill. Miller earned a 5-2 record with a 3.21 ERA and 65 strikeouts in a team-high 75.2 innings in 2019. Jacob Marcus (Malvern, Pa.) will look to build off of a freshman season that moved him into the weekend rotation. Marcus threw 55.0 innings, and struck out 62 hitters in 15 appearances. The other starter slated for opening weekend is Collin Lowe (Ridgefield, Conn.). Lowe missed last season due to an injury, but appeared in 16 games with five starts as a freshman in 2018, earning a 3.73 ERA.

The bullpen is led by several returners, including Garrett Aylor (Austin, Texas), Antonio Balducci (Mechanicsville, Va.), Jarrad DeLarso (Marlton, N.J.), Kent Morrison (Herndon, Va.), Matt Olson (Smyrna, Ga.) and Sammy Senders (Potomac, Md.). Newcomers to the pitching staff include Jeremy Neff (West Palm Beach, Fla.), Alden Mathes (Broomall, Pa.), Theo Farynick (Lloyd Harbor, N.Y.) and Dallas Lind (Brooklyn, N.Y.). Redshirt sophomore James Hulbert (Harrison, N.Y.) returns to the roster after missing 2019 with an injury. Lowell Schipper (Santa Monica, Calif.) is another experienced pitcher who can work as either a starter or a reliever this season. Mason Majors (Kansas City, Mo.) made just one appearance last season, and has made big improvements through summer ball and on campus this fall.

The outfield returns all three starters from the Atlantic 10 Tournament last season. Freshman All A-10 honoree Johnny Hipsman (Chester, N.Y.) will man left field, Anthony Forte (Hoffman Estates, Ill.), a 2019 First Team All A-10 honoree, is back in centerfield and Jordan Schulefand (Parkland, Fla.) is back in right field. The three combined for 99 RBI, 35 doubles and 20 home runs last season and a .993 fielding percentage. Joining these three in the outfield is freshman Ricky Jones (Hopewell, Va.). Jones has good instincts in the field and his speed will play a major role in the Spider offense this season.

Around the horn, the Spiders are set to see three new starters. Justin Cook (Virginia Beach, Va.) remains at first base, Daniel Little (Nicholasville, Ky.) shifted from his shortstop position from last season to second base during the fall this year. Newcomers Peyton Sanderson (Austin, Texas), Eli Larson (Mill Valley, Calif.) and Dominic Toso (Philadelphia, Pa.) have worked on the left side of the infield. Toso has taken over at the hot corner, and the freshmen tandem of Sanderson and Larson have competed at shortstop, with Sanderson getting the majority of the reps.

Richmond will have plenty of depth behind these four as Justin Meyer (Villanova, Pa.), Mark Ready (Dallas, Texas), Davis Payne (Rexford, N.Y.) and Brian Schaub (Hatfield, Pa.) all bring collegiate experience to the field and the plate. Freshmen in the infield include Jason Neff (West Palm Beach, Fla.) and Drew Beno (Loxahatchee, Fla.).

After seeing graduate transfer A.J. Kloehn (Canton, Ohio) and All-Atlantic 10 performer Kyle Schmidt (Smithville, Texas) graduate and move on in the MLB Draft, the Spiders revamped the catching corps for the 2020 season. Virginia transfer Drew Blakely (Galesburg, Mich.) will serve as the primary catcher this season as he leads a group of three freshmen. James Valdivia (Elkhorn, Neb.), Zach Lass (Mechanicsville, Va.) and Jason Neff have all logged innings behind the dish.

Dan Leckie (Suffield, Conn.) is the Spiders' wild card this season. The graduate transfer from Lafayette College started 127 games as a Leopard with a career batting average over .280. Leckie has been versatile this fall, seeing time at different positions in the infield as well as playing his traditional spot on the outfield grass.

The Spiders are set to open the season Friday night as they take on the George Bulldogs at Foley Field in Athens, Georgia at 5 p.m. Live stats and a video stream via the SEC Network + are available via Spider baseball schedule page on RichmondSpiders.com.

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