GREENSBORO, N.C. – Rylan Smith (Archdale, N.C.) of the Guilford College baseball team, enters his senior season with lofty expectations and that was reflected last week as he was selected to the D3baseball.com 2026 Preseason All-America team as announced by the organization on Wednesday.

The Region VI Rookie of the Year in 2023 was brilliant in his return season to Greensboro, anchoring the Quakers lineup, playing and starting in 37 of GC's 38 games in a consensus All-Region campaign. Pacing Guilford with his .401/.497/.620 triple-slash last season, he ranked within the top-eight among Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) qualifiers in all three of those categories. His batting average of .401 was good for 105^th in the nation a season ago, but he just did damage overall, recording a 1.117 OPS that was good for fifth in the ODAC. Bashing to the tune of a team-leading 88 total bases, Smith was also the Quakers' top run-producer, with 41 runs batted in, as well as 40 runs scored, both of which ranked inside the top-20 in the league last spring. While his longballs total dipped from his freshman year, connecting on a trio of home runs in 2025, there was virtually no one better at splitting gaps than the Archdale native. Smith finished tied for fourth Division-III in total doubles, with 22, while the five players equal to or exceeding his two-baggers total all played at minimum four-more games than the rising senior. This resulted in a doubles per game rate of 0.59 that ranked as the second-best mark in the NCAA regardless of division, narrowly trailing Washington & Lee's Andrew Thornton who registered a 0.60 rate over just 30 games.

Smith joins a pretty exclusive group of Quakers with the honor, as this marks just the fourth occasion in which a member of the Guilford baseball program was selected as a Preseason All-American by D3baseball.com, who began distributing the accolades ahead of the 2008 season. He is the first GC player to get Preseason All-America recognition in over a decade, too, with the last one being Corey Wallace '14 prior to the 2014 campaign. Kyle Wooden '11 also got preseason All-America honors from D3baseball.com, getting the honor twice prior to both the 2010 and 2011 seasons. The ODAC featured six total Preseason All-Americans this season, as Shenandoah placed outfielder Jaime Padilla and reliever Liam Stewart on the First Team, Bridgewater's Zack Chadwell and Nick Stravos made the Second and Third Team respectively, and Tyler Kaltreider from Lynchburg made the Second Team as a starter.

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