FOREST, Va. – Finishing the 2025 season with 22 wins, their most since 2017, yet with a bitter taste in their mouths, ending up on the outside, looking in on postseason play, the 2026 Guilford College baseball team eyes a return to Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) tournament field after getting picked seventh in the ODAC Preseason Coaches' Poll, as announced by the conference offices on Monday afternoon.

"We are excited for this upcoming season," Baseball Head Coach, Zach Booker said. "We have over 20 new guys in this class and looking forward to another exciting season in the best conference in Division-III."

The Quakers benefit from a strong foundation on which to build from offensively, returning a couple of the better bats that the conference features in the form of back-to-back All-ODAC Second Team pick, Skyler Dark (Pleasant Garden, N.C.), and D3baseball.com Preseason All-American, Rylan Smith (Archdale, N.C.). Despite experiencing a touch more swing-and-miss in his second season compared to his first, Dark's overall production was roughly on-par to his standout freshman campaign, slashing .365/.436/.547 with nine doubles, a team-best four home runs, and tied for the team lead with four triples. Pushing the envelope more on the bases yielded strong results with a team-leading 11 steals on 13 tries as the sweet-swinging outfielder came around to score 50 times, the sixth-most in the league despite all the players around him playing several more games. As for Smith, his preseason hype is warranted despite being a notable omission from the all-conference team during his All-Region-worthy campaign in 2025. Finishing with the ODAC's fifth-best average among NCAA qualifiers at .401, he split gaps as well as anyone in Division-III, ranking fourth in total doubles, with 22, and second in doubles per game, at 0.59 while serving as the team's top run-producer, driving in 41 in his return to Greensboro. The overshadowed heart in the Guilford nine is Ryne Rodrigues (Summerfield, N.C.) as he finished in the top-three on the team in triple-slash, hits, total bases, and other stats in his first year with the Quakers after hitting .372/.467/.587 with nine doubles, four triples, and three longballs to bring home 31 runs, the second-most on the team. GC is not without questions through after graduating 10 players last spring, most of whom were major contributors. As a result, only two other returners qualified for the ODAC batting average ranks in Ethan George (Burlington, N.C.), who found his freshman season form down the stretch to finish with a .298 average and three home runs, and the glove-first Christian Chinen (Honolulu, Hawaii), who also hit .298, albeit with just two extra-base hits. But with a cluster of returners poised to see increased roles after seeing some success in limited playing time last spring, among them Aidan McCandless (Burlington, N.C.), Dominic Pegues (Raleigh, N.C.), Cole Price (Summerfield, N.C.), and Chris Shoemaker (Winston-Salem, N.C.), Guilford has the pieces for a deep and strong lineup.

The prize of the Quaker recruiting class projects to be pitcher Jonathan Sendziak (McLeansville, N.C.) who comes to Guilford for his junior season after striking out 73 in 69.0 innings as a freshman for Louisburg College, then spending last season in the UNC Greensboro bullpen where he made a trio of scoreless outings across four appearances for the Spartans. Plans are for the 6-1 righty to headline the Guilford rotation as a weekend starter and if he is able to go toe-to-toe with the other aces around the ODAC, the rest of GC's rotation falls nicely into place. Overshadowed some by the assent of Jacob Phillips '25 from midweek spot-starter to weekend standout, Tanner Royals (High Point, N.C.) also emerged as a strong arm in the Quaker rotation striking out 38 over 46.1 innings with a 1.68 WHIP. His 6.22 ERA gets dragged down by rocky first and last outings of the season, but in between he featured a very respectable 4.33 mark and GC is hoping he can carry that over to weekends this spring. Marcello Ricigliano (Kernersville, N.C.) took a step-back as a junior, but the hope is a shift to a midweek role will be fruitful and while it is anyone's guess whether he will start of pitch in relief, Stratton Barwick (Siler City, N.C.) will surely be a part of it after holding opponents to a .272 batting average, the best on the team among those with at least 20 innings pitched, and owning the second-best ERA using the same qualifier, posting a 4.08 mark. Hayden Sekanick (Tampa, Fla.) will serve a relief role, finishing last season allowing just one earned run and two runs total over his final seven outings spanning 8.0 innings and Izaac McGuire (Wilkesboro, N.C.) will also provide a boost out of the bullpen.  

If the snow ever melts, Guilford will open their 2026 slate playing host to Brevard College on Wednesday, February 11^th at 2:00 PM as Quaker fans will be able to enjoy a steady diet of baseball at McBane Field over the first month, with 13 of the first 16 contests over the first month-and-change being played on campus. Their road-opener will be their ODAC-opener on March 7^th when they visit Virginia Wesleyan University for a pair in Virginia Beach at noon.
 

Rk.	School (First-Place Votes)	Pts.
1.	University of Lynchburg (9)	99 pts.
2.	Randolph-Macon College	84 pts.
3.	Bridgewater College (2)	83 pts.
4.	Shenandoah University	74 pts.
5.	Hampden-Sydney College	62 pts.
6.	Roanoke College	51 pts.
7.	Guilford College	44 pts.
8.	Washington & Lee University	42 pts.
9.	Virginia Wesleyan University	28 pts.
10.	Eastern Mennonite University	17 pts.
11.	Averett University	16 pts.

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