SELINSGROVE, Pa. – With the start of both the Susquehanna University baseball and softball seasons now just hours away, both teams have earned some honors to take with them into their openers Sunday and Monday respectively.
With five position starters and its top two pitchers returning from last season's 20-15, Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth League runner-up squad, the softball team is ranked among the top eight teams in the NCAA Division III East Region preseason poll. The Crusaders are not ranked among the top five squads, but are among the three teams listed as "also mentioned" – a group that includes four-time defending MAC champion Messiah.
Susquehanna junior first baseman Lyle Hosler (Lititz/Manheim Township H.S.) was a runner-up for the 1999 Easton Redline Defensive Award by Collegiate Baseball magazine – making him one of the top seven defensive players nationally in Division III according to the publication. Hosler is the only MAC player on the list, which saw Johns Hopkins catcher Johnny Craig win the award.
Susquehanna begins its season at the Chapman University Tournament in Orange, Calif., next week. Chapman was the runner-up last season in the NCAA Division III Championship Tournament and begins this season ranked first in the West Region according to the coaches' preseason poll. The Crusaders open the season Monday with a 10:15 a.m. (Western time) game vs. Kean University, and will have played six games by the time they meet Chapman on Friday, March 10, at 12:30 p.m.
"Now that the word is out about our team and the fact that we're ranked among some of the best in the preseason, it's time to prove it on the field. I think we're all looking forward to the start of the season Monday," said sixth-year head coach Vince Anselmo, who begins the season with a record of 97-70 and is just three wins shy of becoming the ninth current Susquehanna head coach to win 100 contests at the school.
The 6-1, 182-pound Hosler is a returning MAC Commonwealth League Second Team All-Star at first. One of just two players to start all 29 games last season, he earned the team's Best Defensive Player Award as he posted a team best .992 fielding percentage last season. He went his first 239 chances without an error collegiately. Presently with the best career fielding percentage in program history at .994, Hosler recorded the third most putouts in a season at Susquehanna last year with 227. Offensively, he was fourth among the regulars with a .391 on-base percentage and .264 (24 of 91) batting average while hitting in the middle of the lineup. He tied for the team lead in runs with 22, also recording four doubles and 12 RBI.
"Lyle works hard on his defense and is truly one of our leaders on the infield. He's just a solid baseball player who you trust to make the play defensively," said second-year head baseball coach Tim Briggs.
An Academic All-American and MAC All-Academic Team candidate as a business major with an information systems and mathematics/secondary-education minor, he is the son of David and Jean Hosler of Lititz.
The Crusader baseball team will open its season Sunday at 10 a.m. vs. Madonna University at the Cocoa Expo Complex in Cocoa, Fla.
2000 NCAA Division III Preseason Softball Rankings
