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SPORTS
Marshall baseball team picked last
HUNTINGTON -- Conference USA baseball head coaches predicted a ninth-place finish for Marshall in the nine-team league.
Rice, the defending regular season co-champion and conference tournament champion (42-21 overall, 16-8 C-USA), was picked first in the voting. UCF (39-23, 12-12) received one first-place vote and was second in the poll followed by East Carolina (41-21, 14-10) and 2011 regular season co-champion Southern Miss (39-19, 16-8).
The Rice Owls, UCF, East Carolina and Southern Miss were NCAA regional tournament teams last season.
Marshall (20-31, 7-17) was the ninth-place team last season. The Thundering Herd season opens Feb. 17 at N.C. State.
UCF junior infielder D.J. Hicks was selected as the conference preseason player of the year.
Hicks led UCF in batting (.351), topped C-USA in RBIs (66) and was second in the conference for slugging percentage (.583), home runs (14) and walks (35).
Rice pitcher Austin Kubitza, a sophomore right-hander, was named as the preseason pitcher of the year.
Kubitza was the 2011 C-USA Freshman of the Year with a 6-5 record, 2.34 ERA and 102 strikeouts in 100 innings pitched.
