The University of Maine baseball team, which won its first America East championship since 2011 last season, was recently picked to finish second in the conference in the preseason coaches poll.
Binghamton, which will host the six-team double-elimination tournament from May 21-25, was selected as the favorite.
Binghamton received five of the seven first-place votes and a total of 35 points.
UMaine picked up the other two first-place votes and had 31 points.
The University of Maryland Baltimore County was third with 26 points followed by the New Jersey Institute of Technology (19 points), Bryant (18), UMass Lowell (10) and Albany (8).
UMaine will open the season on Friday, Feb. 16 against the University of Pittsburgh at Centennial Park in Port Charlotte, Florida. Game time is 1 p.m.
The Black Bears finished 32-21 a year ago including a 19-5 regular season record that earned them the top seed for the tournament, which was hosted by Binghamton in Vestal, N.Y.
It was their second straight regular season title.
The Black Bears went on to win the tournament by beating fifth seed UMass Lowell 10-7, No. 2 UMBC 3-1 and third seed Binghamton 6-1.
The Black Bears earned a berth in the Coral Gables Regional of the NCAA tournament where it was ousted by ninth-ranked host Miami 9-1 and the University of Louisiana 19-10.
UMaine freshman pitcher Gianni Gambardella was chosen the America East tournament’s Most Valuable Player and first baseman Jeremiah Jenkins, left fielder Nick White and pitcher Caleb Leys were named to the all-tournament team.
All four are back this season and headline a solid nucleus.
Jenkins, who is a junior, Gambardella, graduate student designated hitter Connor Goodman and pitcher Colin Fitzgerald were chosen to the All-America East first team as were departed second baseman Quinn McDaniel and shortstop Jake Rainess.
McDaniel was drafted in the fifth round (153rd overall) and signed with the San Francisco Giants and Rainess transferred to the University of Houston.
Pitcher Noah Lewis was a second team selection and reliever Luc Lavigueur was chosen to the All-Rookie team. Both are also back.
Nick Derba was named coach of the year for the second consecutive season.
Jenkins was the America East Player of the Year, the New England Player of the Year and a third team All-American.
He hit .365 with a team-leading 21 homers and 76 runs batted in. The 21 homers is the second most in program history.
White hit .380 with three homers and 13 RBIs in 24 games; Goodman hit .311 with two homers and 24 RBIs in 53 games; Gambardella was 6-3 with a 3.90 earned-run average; Lewis was 7-1 with a 4.32 ERA; Fitzgerald was 6-2 with a 5.23 ERA and Leys was 5-1 with a 4.94 ERA.
