The Ashland University baseball team was ranked fourth in the Midwest Region by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association in the organization's preseason poll. Additionally, junior first baseman Carson Mittermaier was named to the NCBWA Preseason All-Midwest Region first team and senior starting pitcher Devin Peters was named to the second team.
The Eagles are coming off a season in which they went 33-22 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament as the Midwest Region's No. 6 seed. It was the program's 16th all-time NCAA appearance, and 15th under head coach John Schaly.
Mittermaier was an All-GLIAC first team representative as a sophomore last season and earned second team all-region honors from the NBCWA and D2CCA. He finished sixth in the GLIAC in hitting last season with a .381 batting average. He also reached base at a .466 clip and was sixth in the league with 50 RBI. Mittermaier had 12 doubles, two triples and four homers.
Peters was an All-GLIAC second team pick last season, his first with the Eagles. The right-hander finished 8-5 with a 4.32 ERA. He led the conference in innings pitched (89 2/3) and strikeouts (98). Peters had four complete games on the season. He earned back-to-back wins in the postseason, combining to hold Grand Valley State and Northwood to allow just three runs and nine hits with 20 strikeouts over 15 innings.
The Eagles were 16-12 in GLIAC play last season in a bounce-back year that saw them improve their overall win total by 13 games from 2017.
Ashland's season starts Feb. 23-24 in Nashville, Tenn. with two games against Rockhurst and one against host Trevecca Nazarene.
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