ROCK HILL, SC- The Winthrop baseball team has been ranked 40^th in the Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division 1 pre-season poll on Monday morning.

The Eagles were off to an 11-4 start, its best since 2009, before the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the remainder of the 2020 season.

Winthrop kicked off the 2020 season with back-to-back sweeps over Maine and Canisius College before defeating Davidson, 10-3 to start the season 8-0. The team then recorded a walk-off win over Kent State and took 2-of-3 from George Mason before ending the shortened season with a loss to Clemson.

Back in September, Winthrop's 2020 recruiting class garnered national attention, being recognized by Collegiate Baseball News as one of the top recruiting classes in all of Division 1 baseball and the best in the Big South. The incoming class includes six freshman and three transfers.

"It is a great honor to be recognized by the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper as a Preseason Top 50 program," head coach Tom Riginos said. "I am very happy for my players, both current and former, our fans and my assistant coaches, as they all have worked extremely hard to keep moving this program in the right direction. Our expectation is to be a Top 50 program every year and to see the work we put in reflected in the post-season polls as well." 

The 2021 season is set to begin February 19.

The Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll, with the first being released before the 1959 season.