PAC Release

TRAFFORD, Pa. -- For a second consecutive season, the Allegheny College baseball team was selected third in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Preseason Coaches' Poll, as announced by the league office on Monday.

Following a third-place finish in the PAC standings in 2025, coaches around the PAC predicted a similar result this spring. The Gators have placed no worse than fourth since returning to the conference and qualified for the PAC Championship Tournament in each of the last two years.

In this year's preseason poll, Allegheny earned 98 total points, trailing only Washington and Jefferson College (120) and Grove City College (111) in the 12-team conference. The Gators held an eight-point advantage over Westminster College (90), last year's championship runner-up, before a steep dropoff to fifth-place Saint Vincent College with 72 points.

In addition to releasing the preseason poll results, the PAC identified players to watch from each conference institution. Allegheny was represented by five student-athletes: juniors Ben Shields (Charleroi, Pa./Charleroi Area) and Tyler Skaggs (Champion Heights, Ohio/Champion), sophomores Liam Irving (Olney, Md./Sherwood) and Parker McRay (Mechanicsville, Va./Atlee), and freshman Zach Miner (Venetia, Pa./Peters Township).

Skaggs is the team's leading returner at the plate after hitting .333 with five home runs and 21 RBIs last season. Irving paced all Gators with a .472 on-base percentage while making 27 starts in the outfield as a freshman in 2025. On the mound, Shields, a right-hander, and McRay, a lefty, were tied for the team lead with 11 appearances apiece while combining for three wins, two saves, and 55 strikeouts in 50.2 innings of work. Lastly, Miner will look to make an impact in the lineup as a freshman utility man.

Allegheny will look to escape the cold in Northwest Pennsylvania and open its season at Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia. The three-game series begins with a doubleheader on Saturday, February 21, at noon.