CARBONDALE, Ill. – Southern Illinois baseball has been tabbed as the league favorite in the annual coaches’ preseason poll, the Missouri Valley Conference announced Tuesday.
The Salukis tallied 93 points and were named the favorite over second-place pick Missouri State (87 points, three 1st place votes). Evansville (79 points) finished third, while Indiana State finished fourth with 75 points and the final 1st place vote.
Bradley was selected fifth place with 58 points, followed by Belmont (53 points), Illinois State (35 points), UIC (25 points), Murray State (23 points) and Valparaiso (22 points).
Kaeber Rog, Pier-Olivier Boucher and Matthew Steidl each earned spots on the Preseason All-MVC Team.
An All-American in 2022, Rog had one of the best statistical seasons in program history in his first season as a Saluki in 2022. The Willemstad, Curacao native tallied the fourth-most hits in a single season in program history (89) and his 21 doubles and 14 home runs are tied for the sixth-most in school history. One of only two Salukis to start every game this season, Rog tallied 25 multi-hit games, which included 10 games with three or more hits and hit a conference-best .405 in MVC play.
The switch-hitting shortstop earned the MVC’s Joe Carter Player of the Year award as well as the league’s Newcomer of the Year honor, becoming just the second player in conference history to win both in the same season.
Steidl is coming off a strong 2022 campaign in which he appeared in 30 games, recording a 7-4 record with six saves en route to earning First Team All-MVC honors. The right-hander ranked third in the MVC with 91 strikeouts with a 3:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
In total, the Gallatin, Tennessee native pitched 75.2 innings, allowing 29 runs while holding opponents to a .262 average against. During the final stretch of conference play, Steidl pitched in nine of the final 12 games of the season helping the Salukis to a 10-2 record and the program’s first MVC title in 32 years.
Boucher put together a .325 batting average a year ago – the third-best on the team. He played in 52 games, starting 46 in the outfield. The Saint-Joseph-de-Bauce, Quebec native was 10-for-11 on stolen base attempts and was a steady force down the stretch for Southern during its MVC title push, hitting .435 over the final six games to help SIU to its first MVC Regular Season Championship in over 30 years.
Composite Preseason Honors
MVC Preseason All-Conference
SS, Kaeber Rog
OF, Pier-Olivier Boucher
RHP, Matthew Steidl
Collegiate Baseball
Second Team Preseason All-American: RHP, Matthew Steidl
Third Team Preseason All-American: SS, Kaeber Rog
D1Baseball.com
Preseason Player of the Year: SS, Kaeber Rog
2023 Draft Prospects (MVC Rank)
No. 3, RHP, Paul Bonzagni
No. 7, RHP, Easton Dermody
No. 19, SS, Kaeber Rog
No. 21, OF, Pier-Olivier Boucher
No. 24, 3B, Ryan Rodriguez
Perfect Game USA
Preseason Player of the Year: SS, Kaeber Rog
