ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's baseball team, which won a share of the Great Lakes Valley Conference's regular season championship in 2019, was tabbed for a ninth place finish for the upcoming 2020 season as the GLVC released the pre-season poll on Tuesday.

The Miners are coming off a 30-17 season that also saw them finish in a three-way tie for first with Quincy and Maryville with 22-11 conference records during the 2019 campaign.  The regular season championship was the fourth captured by the Miners in the last nine seasons, but the Miners lost their top seven hitters in terms of batting average (based on GLVC statistical ranking standards for at-bats) as well as two of their top three starting pitchers to graduation.

Bellarmine, the defending GLVC Tournament champion and No. 14 team nationally in Collegiate Baseball's pre-season poll, was picked to win the conference championship.  Quincy was picked to finish second, followed by Southern Indiana, Drury and Illinois Springfield, who advanced the farthest of any GLVC team in the post-season as it reached the NCAA Division II Midwest Super Regional round.

Maryville, Indianapolis and Lindenwood – one of the two GLVC newcomers this season who did receive a first place vote in the poll – also finished ahead of S&T in the pre-season rankings.  The Miners finished 11 points ahead of 10^th place Lewis.

Missouri S&T is scheduled to open its 2020 season on Feb. 15 when it hosts Minot State and begins its 35-game GLVC schedule March 7 at Rockhurst.

2020 Great Lakes Valley Conference Baseball Pre-Season Coaches Poll
1. Bellarmine, 212 points (11 first place votes)
2. Quincy, 202 points (3 first place votes)
3. Southern Indiana, 186 points (1 first place vote)
4. Drury, 180 points
5. Illinois Springfield, 169 points
6. Maryville, 159 points
7. Indianapolis, 144 points
8. Lindenwood, 143 points (1 first place vote)
9. Missouri S&T, 117 points
10. Lewis, 106 points
11. William Jewell, 71 points
12. Southwest Baptist, 70 points
13. McKendree, 49 points
14. Missouri-St. Louis, 47 points
15. Rockhurst 33 points
16. Truman State, 32 points