Coming off its best season since the program’s rebirth, the Seattle University baseball team was picked to finish in third place in the Western Athletic Conference in voting by the league’s 10 coaches, announced Wednesday morning by the conference office.
In addition, Seattle U claimed two spots on the Preseason All-WAC Team, as sophomore outfielder Dalton Hurd (Bend, Ore.) earned one of the at-large positions and sophomore lefthander Tarik Skubal (Kingman, Ariz.) was one of three starting pitchers named to the squad.
Seattle U, coming off a second-place finish in 2015 with a 19-8 league record, received one first place vote and 57 total points in the coaches’ vote. Defending WAC regular season champion Grand Canyon received five first place votes and 77 total points to edge out Sacramento State, which earned four first place votes and 74 total points for second place.
CSU Bakersfield, the defending WAC Tournament champion, finished in fourth place in the poll with 55 points, just ahead of New Mexico State in fifth place with 50 points and Utah Valley in sixth place with 48 points. UT Rio Grande Valley collected 31 points for seventh place, followed by Northern Colorado in eighth place with 27 points, North Dakota in ninth place with 22 points, and Chicago State in 10th place with nine points.
Hurd batted .299 as a freshman last season for the Redhawks with 53 hits, including six doubles and four home runs, 28 runs batted in, and 21 stolen bases in 22 attempts. Three of his four home runs came in the final two weeks of the season, including a long ball during a 2-for-4 performance with two runs scored and three RBI in Seattle U’s 9-3 victory over CSU Bakersfield that sent the Redhawks to the championship round of the WAC Tournament.
Skubal was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball after going 7-4 with a 3.24 earned run average. Sliding into the Sunday starting role as a freshman, Skubal was 6-1 in conference games, tied the Seattle U modern record for strikeouts in a single game with 11 against Chicago State May 10, and earned the victory in Seattle U’s 9-3 win over CSU Bakersfield to advance the team into the WAC Tournament title game.
Seattle University opens the 2016 season with a four-game series at Saint Mary’s in Moraga, Calif., next Friday through Sunday, Feb. 19-21. The Redhawks open the home schedule at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue with a four-game series against Bowling Green Feb. 26-28, with tickets on sale each day at the front gate starting 60 minutes before first pitch.