Baseball

Greensboro Picked to Win USA South Baseball Title

The USA South Athletic Conference's baseball coaches have released their 2026 preseason poll. Head coaches do not vote for their own teams in the balloting.

Greensboro was placed atop the rankings thanks to receiving 46 total points and four of the possible eight first place votes. The Pride finished last season with a 15-5-1 Conference record which was good for a second place finish. The Pride would go on to fall in the Conference Tournament championship series to the team placing second in the poll, Methodist. The reigning regular season and tournament champion Monarchs earned 45 points in the poll with the remaining four first place selections. Rounding out the top-three was N.C. Wesleyan who grabbed 35 total points.

Since the first Conference baseball preseason poll in 2004, this is the first time the Greensboro program has been picked to capture the title. The Pride will be looking to earn their first-ever regular season crown. The team picked first in the poll's history has won the Conference championship ten out of 20 years. No team selected lower than fourth in the preseason poll has won the Conference championship.

The 2026 USA South Baseball Tournament will once again be conducted exclusively on campus sites. The top-six seeded teams will advance to postseason play which will begin with two, three-team, double-elimination tournaments on Thursday-Saturday, April 30-May 2. The winners of those two tournaments will face each other in a best-of-three championship series the following weekend, Friday-Saturday, May 8-9.
 

2026 USA South Coaches Preseason Baseball Poll
Rank Institution (1st Place Votes) Points
1. Greensboro (4) 46
2. Methodist* (4) 45
3. N.C. Wesleyan 35
4. Brevard 29
5. Pfeiffer 27
6. Southern Virginia 21
7. William Peace 14
8. Mary Baldwin 7
*Defending Regular Season and Tournament Champion
 

All-Time Baseball Conference Records
(records as of the 1980 season - listed by wins of current Conference members)
Team Seasons Record Pct. Conference Championships
(Reg. Season / Tournament)
Methodist 46 416-223 .651 20 / 4
N.C. Wesleyan 46 398-240 .638 22 / 9
Greensboro 33 212-298-1 .416 0 / 1
William Peace 11 81-131 .382 0 / 0
Pfeiffer 7 72-56 .563 0 / 0
Brevard 7 52-72-1 .420 0 / 0
Southern Virginia 4 31-53 .369 0 / 0
Mary Baldwin 5 13-89 .127 0 / 0