ADRIAN, Mich. -- The Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) announced the 2022 WHAC Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll on Thursday afternoon. The Siena Heights baseball team was chosen to finish 11th in the poll--the exact spot where they finished in the standings last season.
The Saints return 2021 All-WHAC – first-team player Adam Wilding and the Champions of Character Coach of the Year John Kolasinski. Returning leadership also returns with six top starters, Cameron Hammer, Cole Vanwashenova, Chris Winkelman, Adam Wilding, Zach Bloom, and pitcher Parker Swartz. In addition, the blue and yellow gain a total of 23 Freshman. Some Top Newcomers are Brock Olmstead, Chase Molnar, and Tyson Kemp.
"We have a young, talented group of guys on this team that has not gotten the opportunity to play an entire college baseball season for the last two years," said head coach John Kolasinski. "We have not played Concordia or Aquinas in conference games since the spring of 2019, and last year we played 13 conference games in 12 days after being paused for 16 days due to covid. So it will be fun and interesting to see how it all plays out this year."
The preseason poll is voted on by the coaches in the league who rank each team in the WHAC from 1-12. Twelve points are given to the team at the top of the list, eleven points to the second-ranked team, and so on to determine the order of the poll.
Reigning WHAC champion Concordia (Mich.) fell to third in this year's poll after receiving 120 points and only three first-place votes. Indiana Tech remained in second place by totaling 131 points with four first-place votes. Coming in on top of the poll was UNOH, with 133 points and five first-place votes. Madonna was placed into the fourth position, having been granted 113 points. Next is Lawrence Tech, with 88 points, only seven points ahead of UM-Dearborn (81 points). Cornerstone held the seventh slot, receiving 72 points, followed by Aquinas College (61 points), finished with three more points than Lourdes (58 points). Rounding out the 2022 Baseball Preseason Poll is Cleary with 36 points, Siena Heights with 28 points, and Rochester with 15 points.
Click here for the WHAC release of the 2022 Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll.
