WINTHROP Mass. – The JWU (Providence) baseball program has been picked to win its fourth-consecutive Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championship in 2024 in a poll conducted by the conference's baseball head coaches.

The Wildcats – who earned 11 of a possible 13 first-place votes – finished atop the poll with 167 points. Last season, JWU won a program-record 30 games and captured its third-consecutive GNAC Championship with a 19-13 win over Anna Maria in the conference championship. The Wildcats then defeated Middlebury and Bridgewater State in the NCAA Tournament before suffering a pair of losses to eventual College World Series participant Endicott.

Reigning GNAC Coach of the Year Kevin Casey returns a slew of all-conference picks, including reigning Pitcher and Rookie of the Year Aidan Vining and 2023 GNAC First Team selections Riley Hasson, EJ Leone, Xavier Botelho, and Owen Davis. Last month, Vining was named to the D3baseball Preseason All-America Team after earning Fourth Team honors last season.

JWU's biggest threat in 2024 may come from newcomer Mitchell College, which won the New England Collegiate Conference (NECC) last spring and closed the season with a 33-10 record. The Mariners hosted an NCAA regional and secured wins over Tufts and Wheaton (MA) before bowing out at the hands of the Lyons. Mitchell received the remaining two first-place votes and finished with 141 total points.

Last year's runner-up Anna Maria was picked third (136 points), followed by Lasell (131) and both Elms and St. Joseph's (ME), each of which finished with 114 points. The GNAC's other newcomer, New England College, was next with 83 points, followed by Rivier (76), Albertus Magnus and Colby-Sawyer (46 each), USJ (45), and Dean and Norwich (42 each).

The Wildcats open the 2024 season at Salisbury University in Maryland against Rowan University on March 1 at 2 p.m.