CORTLAND, N.Y. — The SUNY Cortland baseball team is ranked 11th nationally in Division III in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper 2019 preseason poll.
Cortland is coming off a 2018 campaign in which the Red Dragons finished 35-12 and made their 26th straight NCAA tournament appearance - the longest active streak in Division III and the third longest in any NCAA division behind Division I schools Florida State (41) and Cal St.-Fullerton (27). Cortland will attempt to tie the Division III record for most consecutive NCAA tournament appearances of 27 set by Marietta from 1976-2002.
Cortland has made 14 World Series appearances, all since 1995 - the most by any school since the eight-team Series format was adopted in 1991. Ten of those showings have come in head coach Joe Brown's first 19 seasons (2000-01, 2005, 2007-08, 2010, 2012, 2014-16). Cortland won the 2015 national title, finished second nationally twice (2005, 2010), third three times (1997, 1998, 2016) and fourth twice (2007, 2012).
The Red Dragons are scheduled to play 17 games versus teams either ranked or "receiving votes" in the Collegiate Baseball poll. Cortland opens the season Feb. 9-10 with a three-game series at 2016 national champion Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, and will host a three-game SUNYAC series versus 14th-ranked Oswego in mid-April. Cortland will also face 24th-ranked Salisbury twice on the road Feb. 23-24 and 31st-ranked Ithaca twice, once on the road (April 10) and once at home (April 24).
Cortland will also face La Roche (#23) and Johns Hopkins (receiving votes) at Johns Hopkins' Baltimore Invitational in early March and will play a game at Stevens Institute (receiving votes) March 10. Cortland's spring break trip to Georgia in mid-March will feature games versus Adrian (#26), Marietta (receiving votes), Berry (receiving votes) and Piedmont (receiving votes).
The D3baseball.com preseason national poll will be released in mid-January.
