NEW ORLEANS – UL Lafayette was pegged as the Sun Belt Conference favorite to win this year’s baseball crown, the league office announced on Tuesday after a vote of the conference’s 11 head coaches while South Alabama’s duo of Cole Billingsley and Kevin Hill were tabbed by the coaches as the 2016 Sun Belt Conference Preseason Student-Athlete and Pitcher of the Year, respectively.
The Ragin’ Cajuns enter 2016 as the favorite to win the league for the third consecutive season. Last year the Cajuns went 42-23 finishing third in the league. They went on to win the Sun Belt tournament title and claim the NCAA Houston Regional championship before falling in the Super Regionals to LSU.
The Cajuns are 100-33 in the past two seasons and have led the Sun Belt in most, if not all, statistical categories during that time frame. They return five position starters from a year ago, including Stefan Trosclair and Gunner Leger. Trosclair was a first-team All-SBC selection a year ago while Leger was named the league’s Freshman of the Year. Leger along with fellow sophomore, Wyatt Marks, should give the Cajuns a formidable one-two punch. Dylan Moore, also a sophomore, returns with his 1.60 ERA and 13 saves.
Trosclair finished tied for the league lead in home runs a season ago with 16 as the Cajuns hit 57 as a team and led the league with 385 runs scored. Kyle Clement joins Trosclair on the Preseason All-Conference team.
Those are some of the reasons the league’s coaches voted UL Lafayette as the team to beat in the Sun Belt, evidenced by the eight first-place votes and 117 points garnered in the voting.
South Alabama, which claimed the regular season title in 2015, received three first-place votes and finished second behind the Cajuns in the voting with 111 points. USA went 37-20 a season ago falling to the Cajuns in the league’s winner-take-all championship game.
The Jaguars will be paced by senior Kevin Hill, last year’s Pitcher of the Year, and redshirt-junior Cole Billingsley. Hill led the league with a 1.73 ERA, opponents’ batting average (.208), strikeouts (107), earned runs allowed (18) and wins (10).
Hill was named the league’s Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
Billingsley earned first-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors and was named an American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings Division I Gold Glove Award honors in 2015. He started all 55 games in center field, and did not commit an error in 163 total chances while recording three assists. Billingsley led the SBC in stolen bases with 30 and was second in the league in hits with 80.
Danny Martinez joins both Hill and Billingsley on the Preseason All-Conference team.
Texas State was picked to finish third in 2016 and received 88 points in the voting. The Bobcats are led by Tanner Hill and Cory Geisler, both Preseason All-Conference selections. Hill played in 53 games, starting 48 in 2015 and hit .319 with 60 hits, nine home runs and 44 runs batted in. Geisler, a utility player for the Bobcats, played in 55 games as an outfielder and appeared in 16 games as a pitcher, starting four of those 16 appearances.
Geisler hit .274 with 58 hits, six home runs, 29 runs batted in and scored 42 runs. He struck out 26 and earned three saves in 35.1 innings of work with a 4.84 ERA.
The Troy Trojans come in at No. 4 in the league as they received 81 points. The Trojans finished 30-25 overall in 2015 but went 18-10 in league play to finish second behind the Jaguars in the standings.
This season the Trojans will have a new skipper at the helm as Mark Smartt takes over for 2016. His squad returns four starters and seven pitchers from a season ago.
Georgia Southern rounds out the top five as it received 76 points in the coaches’ poll. The Eagles finished fourth in league play with an 18-12 record. Evan Challenge earned First Team All-Sun Belt honors a year ago and was named to the Preseason All-Conference team in 2016. Challenger posted a 5-3 record and ranked second in the Sun Belt with a 2.03 ERA last year and struck out 58 batters to just 22 walks over 80.0 innings.
Georgia State was tabbed sixth in the conference with 63 points. The Panthers finished fifth last season thanks to a 15-13 record in Sun Belt play. Senior Joey Roach (Catcher), sophomore Justin Jones (Shortstop) and junior Ryan Blanton (Outfield) were named to the preseason list.
UT Arlington, which finished tied for sixth in the league in 2015, returns 18 letter winners including several position starters from a team that went 14-16 in Sun Belt play. The Mavericks were tabbed seventh with 57 points.
Arkansas State was tabbed to finish eighth as the Red Wolves look to improve upon last year’s 27-30 record.
Little Rock, UL Monroe, and Appalachian State round out the final three teams in the 2016 coaches’ poll.
Regular season action begins for all teams on Feb. 19 with conference action scheduled to begin March 11. The 2016 Sun Belt Baseball Tournament is scheduled for May 25-29 at Bobcat Baseball Stadium in San Marcos, Texas and will be hosted by Texas State University.
2016 Preseason All-Sun Belt Baseball Team
Evan Challenger (Georgia Southern, SP, RS-Junior, Sport Management)
Gunner Leger (UL Lafayette, SP, Sophomore, Exercise Science)
Kevin Hill (South Alabama, SP, RS-Senior, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Dylan Moore (UL Lafayette, RP, Sophomore, Political Science)
Joey Roach (Georgia State, C, Senior, Actuarial Science)
Tanner Hill (Texas State, 1B, Senior, General Studies)
Stefan Trosclair (UL Lafayette, 2B, Senior, General Studies)
Justin Jones (Georgia State, SS, Sophomore, Exercise Science)
Tanner Ring (Arkansas State, 3B, Senior, Exercise Science)
Ryan Blanton (Georgia State, OF, Junior, Exercise Science)
Kyle Clement (UL Lafayette, OF, Senior, General Studies)
Cole Billingsley (South Alabama, OF, RS-Junior, Sports Management)
Danny Martinez (South Alabama, DH, Senior, Interdisciplinary Studies)
Cory Geisler (Texas State, UTIL, Senior, Applied Arts and Sciences)
2016 Preseason Student-Athlete of the Year
Cole Billingsley (South Alabama, OF, RS-Junior, Sports Management)
2016 Preseason Pitcher of the Year
Kevin Hill (South Alabama, SP, RS-Senior, Interdisciplinary Studies)
2016 Sun Belt Coaches Predicted Order of Finish (first place votes)
1. UL Lafayette (8) – 117 pts
2. South Alabama (3) – 111 pts
3. Texas State – 88 pts
4. Troy – 81 pts
5. Georgia Southern – 76 pts
6. Georgia State – 63 pts
7. UT Arlington – 57 pts
8. Arkansas State – 50 pts
9. Little Rock – 35 pts
10. UL Monroe – 29 pts
11. Appalachian State – 19 pts
