Baseball Picked to Repeat in 2019
Feb 7, 2019
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – The American Rivers Conference released the preseason coaches’ poll for the 2019 baseball season on Thursday, tabbing the University of Dubuque Spartans to repeat as conference championships.
Coming off the program’s first conference regular season and tournament titles in the 2018 season, the Spartans have now been tabbed as the favorites of the American Rivers Conference for the 2019 season. The Spartans return experience all over the diamond with six all-conference performers in 2018 returning, five of which are seniors in 2019 (Nathan Schneiderman and Chase Kueter, Jack Lasswell, Jarad Clevenger, Justin Jensen and Thomas Kempf).
Schneiderman and Kueter will look to close their already record breaking careers on the mound on a high note in 2019. To go along with all-conference honors in 2018, both were named to all-regional teams by D3baseball.com and ABCA/Rawlings. In 2018, Kueter set several school-records beginning with seven wins and 13 starts, 94.0 innings pitched, and 78 strikeouts. Schneiderman posted a 3.18 ERA out of the bullpen, including a school-record eight saves, which also gave him the most career saves with 13.
Jack Lasswell has been a steady presence at second base over the last two seasons, is coming off a season in which he set the single season school-record for hits in a season with 62. Lasswell started in all 43 of UD’s games, hitting .346 and a fielding percentage of .960. After a bit of a slow start at the plate in 2018, Kempf hot scorching hot and never looked back, finishing with a batting average of .345, driving in a team high 32 runs. He posted a school-best and perfect fielding percentage of 1.000%. Jarad Clevenger rounds out the five all-conference returning seniors after hitting a team-high .354.
UD will get the 2019 season underway on March 1st, when they travel to St. Louis, Missouri to take on Fontbonne University.
1. Univ. of Dubuque (5) 58 26-17, 16-5 (Conference Regular Season & Tournament Champions)
2. Coe College (3) 55 24-18, 14-8
3. Wartburg College 52 26-13, 15-6
4. Luther College (1) 48 26-16, 13-9
5. Buena Vista Univ. 36 15-23, 10-12
6. Loras College 23 25-15, 14-9
7. Central College 22 26-23, 7-16
8. Simpson College 21 8-28, 6-17
9. Nebraska Wesleyan Univ. 9 9-26, 5-18
