The Big East office announced that the Seton Hall baseball team ranked third in the Preseason Coaches Poll and had two players named to the Preseason All-Big East team.
Graduate students Tyler Shedler-McAvoy and Matt Toke were two of three players unanimously selected for this year’s preseason team. Shedler-McAvoy was also named Big East Preseason Co-Player of the Year along with the University of Connecticut’s Kyler Fedko.
Seton Hall received one first-place vote in this year’s Preseason Coaches’ Poll and was picked to finish third in the conference behind Creighton and UConn, respectively. This season’s poll has the Pirates ranked one place lower than last year and with two fewer first-place votes prior to the abrupt COVID-19-induced cancellation of the 2020 season.
Shedler-McAvoy ended the 2019 season as an All-Big East First Team honoree and was named to the 2020 Preseason All-Big East team as well. He started all 14 of the Pirates’ games last season, hitting .304 with two triples. He stole seven bases, registered five multi-hit games and went 33 fielding chances without making an error in center field. In 2019, as a junior, Shedler-McAvoy led the team with a .324 batting average and recorded a career-high 37 RBI.
This was also Toke’s second selection to the Preseason All-Big East team after earning the honor last spring. He played 13 games before the cancellation of the 2020 season, committing just one error in 102 fielding chances. The first baseman was also named to the 2018 Big East Championship All-Tournament Team at the end of his sophomore season.
Seton Hall was 6-8 through 14 games last season and are scheduled to open their 2021 season in Boca Raton, Florida, against Florida Atlantic on Feb. 26. The team was initially scheduled to open its season at home to La Salle on Friday, Feb. 19, but the three-game series against La Salle has been postponed.
The Pirates are scheduled to play their first home game and just their second on the newly renovated Owen T. Carroll Field on Saturday, Mar. 6, against Albany. Their first game on the new field was their last game of the 2020 season—a 13-3 win over Fairleigh Dickinson University. Big East regular season play is scheduled to return to South Orange on Friday, Apr. 9, with a three-game home series against Butler.Justin Sousa can be reached at justin.sousa@student.shu.edu. Follow him on Twitter @JustinSousa99.
