NSIC Baseball Preseason Coaches’ Poll

CROOKSTON, Minn. - The University of Minnesota Crookston baseball team was picked to finish 15th in the 2015 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) Preseason Baseball Coaches’ Poll released Thursday by the conference office. The Golden Eagles received 14 votes in the poll. UMC is in their first season under new Head Coach Steve Gust, who is looking to turn around a program that went 1-47 during the 2014 season.

Minnesota State University, Mankato was picked to win the league for the sixth season in a row. St. Cloud State University was picked second, while Augustana College (S.D.) was picked third.

Minnesota State catcher Nolan Johnson was chosen as the NSIC Preseason Player of the Year after earning Daktronics First Team All-America honors last season. Wayne State College pitcher Eric Browning was named the NSIC Preseason Pitcher of the Year after earning First Team All-NSIC and First Team
All-Region honors last season.

UMC senior pitcher Richie Navratil was picked as a UMC Player to Watch. Navratil returned for his senior season after already earning a degree in Sports and Rec Management. He is currently pursuing a second degree from UMC. Navratil, a native of Blansko, Czech Republic, led the team with a school-record 67 innings pitched on the season. Navratil had 30 strikeouts on the season.

UMC junior first baseman Ryan Haggstrom, an Apple Valley, Minn. native, was named UMC’s Player to Watch in the field. Haggstrom had a breakout season for the Golden Eagles as a sophomore, hitting .359 with 26 runs scored, seven doubles, four triples and 20 runs batted in. In addition, Haggstrom is strong in the field, holding a .989 fielding percentage last season.

The Golden Eagles return 13 players from last season’s roster and have also brought in 16 players, bringing the total number of players to 29, up from just 18 players that finished the season last year, which was the first order of business for Coach Gust. UMC will open the Gust era on Feb. 14 with a pair of games at Wasburn University in Topeka, Kan.

2015 NSIC Preseason Baseball Coaches’ Poll
1    Minnesota State (12)    194
2    St. Cloud State (1)    172
3    Augustana    170
4    Winona State (1)    166
5    Southwest Minnesota State    128
6    Northern State    125
7    Concordia-St. Paul    122
8    Wayne State    119
9    Bemidji State     81
10    Minnesota Duluth    76
11    Sioux Falls    72
12    Minot State    62
13    Upper Iowa    43
14    U-Mary    31
15    Minnesota Crookston    14