LOCK HAVEN, Pa.- The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) released its baseball preseason coaches poll on Thursday afternoon, and West Chester was picked to finish third in the PSAC East in 2026.
East Stroudsburg, the 2025 NCAA Atlantic Region Champions, and a top-15 team nationally in the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), was voted the preseason favorite to win the PSAC East with six first-place votes, followed by Millersville in second with two first-place votes of its own. West Chester claimed third in the rankings, followed by Shippensburg and Shepherd to round out the top five. Bloomsburg, Kutztown, and Mansfield rounded out the poll in sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively.
Seton Hill, who, like East Stroudsburg and Millersville, enters the season nationally ranked in both the ABCA and NCBWA polls, is the preseason favorite to capture the PSAC West with six first-place votes, followed by Slippery Rock in second with two first-place votes of its own. Indiana (Pa.), California (Pa.), and Gannon round out the top five, while Clarion, Pitt-Johnstown, and Lock Haven occupy spots six through eight in the preseason prognostications as voted upon by the PSAC baseball coaches.
This is the fourth preseason ranking of the week for the Golden Rams, as the team started the week with a fourth-place ranking in the NCBWA Atlantic Region Preseason Poll before being voted 30
th in the ABCA Preseason Poll on Tuesday, and receiving votes in the NCBWA Preseason Poll on Wednesday.
West Chester heads into 2026 after going 35-17 overall a year ago and 17-11 in league action, which led the 2024 PSAC Champion Golden Rams back to the PSAC and NCAA Tournaments in 2025. West Chester took three of four to end the regular season against Mansfield before falling to California in the PSAC Tournament by a 7-4 final ahead of a pair of NCAA Tournament losses to Fairmont State (11-4) and East Stroudsburg (6-1).
West Chester returns several pieces from that 2025 squad, including a pair of top bats in
Austin Stalker (Wycombe, Pa./Council Rock North) and
Caleb Strawhecker (West Grove, Pa./Avon Grove), who batted .327 and .325 with seven and five home runs, respectively, in their first seasons as Golden Rams last Spring. Strawhecker earned PSAC East Rookie of the Year honors after driving in 31 runs and scoring 30 more, while also doing an excellent job behind the plate throughout his first season of collegiate baseball.
On the mound, West Chester also returns many of its arms from 2025, led by
Julian Costa (Mantua, N.J./Clearview), who pitched to a record of 8-3 with a 4.60 ERA and three complete games, including a no-hitter early last Spring in Cary, North Carolina. This effort led to Costa earning PSAC, NCBWA Atlantic Region, and NCBWA Division II Pitcher of the Week honors as he became the first Golden Rams since Nicholas Frank in 1947 to throw a no-hitter.
West Chester will open its 2026 campaign on February 21 with a doubleheader against Saint Anslem in Fairfax, Virginia, beginning at 12 p.m.
The 2026 PSAC Baseball Championship will return to Slippery Rock in May, beginning on May 6. The Championship will be contested at Slippery Rock for the first time since 2024, when West Chester left the Rock with its sixth PSAC Championship. The 2026 PSAC Tournament will include a notable change as a change in format was voted into rule ahead of the 2026 season. Previously an eight-team field with single elimination games on the first day proceeding a double-elimination Tournament the following days, the Tournament will now be a 10-team, single-elimination Tournament.
A full preview of the 2026 Golden Rams will be available ahead of the team's opening weekend in Virginia later in February.
