Wonder Boys baseball picked third in preseason coaches poll

RUSSELLVILLE — The Great American Conference released its annual preseason coaches poll for baseball on Tuesday, and in that release, the Arkansas Tech baseball team was picked to finish the 2025 regular season in third place.
The Wonder Boys were one of four programs that received a first-place vote with Arkansas-Monticello garnering the most with six, helping them top the poll with 115 total points as well. Harding had four first-place votes and totaled 108 points to finish above Tech in the poll. The Wonder Boys and Southern Arkansas each received one first-place vote. Tech totaled 98 points to rank third while SAU earned 93 points to rank fourth.
Henderson State was not far behind SAU in the rankings as they totaled 87 points to rank fifth. A decent gap developed between Henderson and sixth-ranked Northwestern Oklahoma, who had 66 points. Three points back of NWOSU was Oklahoma Baptist as they ranked seventh. Ouachita Baptist slotted eighth with 57 points.
The next biggest gap came in slots 9-12. Southwestern Oklahoma was ninth with 36 points followed by Southeastern Oklahoma with 32. East Central had 22 points to rank 11th while Southern Nazarene rounded out the poll with 15 points.
Last season, the Wonder Boys would claim a share of the Great American Conference Regular Season Championship with a 23-10 conference record. They also finished the season 38-20 overall and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Central Region Tournament for the second-straight season.

This year, the Wonder Boys return all three of their primary starting pitchers in John Gray, Emiliano Mata and Jack Rector as well as six arms that saw time in relief last season. Gray was an all-conference selection last year after he went 6-3 with a 5.11 ERA and 72 strikeouts in 86.1 innings pitched. Mata and Rector each logged at least 60.0 innings across 15 starts and combined for 114 punchouts.
From the lineup, the Wonder Boys return four that started over 45 games. All-conference selection Brendyn Bard is the top hitter back in terms of average as he hit .327 (66-for-202) last season. Bard would also have 13 doubles, a triple, three home runs and drove in 34. Christian Olea returns with the most homers from a year ago with four.
The Wonder Boys are once more slated to open their regular season at the home of the Houston Astros, Daikin Park, for the annual Houston Winter Invitational. Tech will play three games the first weekend of February and will face a stout slate of Jefferson University, Ashland University and Mississippi College
The opening game of their 2025 season will take place at 1:30 p.m. on Friday, January 31 against Jefferson. For the full 2025 ATU baseball schedule, check out https://arkansastechsports.com/sports/baseball/schedule