BRENTWOOD, Tenn. – Three SIUE baseball players have earned preseason All-Ohio Valley Conference honors.
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Senior designated hitter Brady Bunten, junior outfielder Brennan Orf and junior third baseman Josh Ohl were named among the 16-person preseason All-OVC team.
Bunten tied for third on the team with 13 home runs while driving in 42 runs in 2022. Bunten was second on the team with 49 runs scored. He garnered first team All-OVC honors following the season. He begins the year with 30 career home runs, which is fourth all-time at SIUE. His 98 career runs batted in ranks 10th.
Orf led the Cougars at the plate in 2022, hitting .357 which was good for seventh in the league. Orf led the league with a .492 on-base percentage. He tied for third on the team with 13 home runs and was second with a .713 slugging percentage which was good for third in the league. Orf was a second team All-OVC pick following the season. Orf made 29 starts at first base in 2022 but will move to a primary outfield spot in 2023.
Ohl hit .314 in 50 games and was fourth on the team with 64 hits. He added nine home runs and 39 RBIs. After making 50 starts at shortstop in 2022, Ohl will shift to third base in 2023.
The Cougars three position players on the preseason team mark the most in the league. Morehead State's Jackson Feltner was named the OVC preseason Player of the Year. The Eagles' John Bakke was selected as the preseason Pitcher of the Year.
After a fifth-place finish last year, The league's head coaches, and sports information personnel also predicted the Cougars for a sixth-place finish in the preseason poll. The Cougars won 27 games, the second-most in the Division I era. SIUE tied for the top spot in the league with a .303 batting average and hit a school-record 99 home runs and
Two-time defending OVC champion Southeast Missouri was picked to win the league followed by Morehead State, Eastern Illinois, Little Rock and Tennessee Tech. UT Martin, Lindenwood and Southern Indiana rounded out the preseason poll.
SIUE opens the 2023 season with a three-game series at Incarnate Word beginning Friday Feb. 17.
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