BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. -- The Bears of Bridgewater State University are the unanimous pre-season pick to win the 2013 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Baseball championship in a vote of the league’s coaches.

Bridgewater State, the defending league regular season and tournament champion, claimed all eight first place votes to amass 64 points in taking the top spot in the poll, as the Bears outdistanced runner-up Salem State’s total of 54 points.

Westfield State is next in third place with 44 points, while Framingham State follows in fourth place with 39 points. Worcester State and Massachusetts Maritime are next in fifth and sixth place, respectively, with 34 and 20 points, while Fitchburg State and MCLA round out this year’s coaches poll in seventh and eighth place, respectively, with 18 and 15 points.

The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, the nation’s oldest Division III men’s and women’s playing conference, has a rich and storied tradition of competitive success while celebrating excellence in the classroom. MASCAC member schools include Bridgewater State University, Fitchburg State University, Framingham State University, MCLA, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Salem State University, Westfield State University and Worcester State University.

Two other institutions, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Plymouth State University, are affiliate members of the conference in the sports of football and men’s ice hockey, while Western Connecticut State University will join the conference as an affiliate member in the sport of football for the 2013-14 academic year.

(Courtesy of Jim Seavey, MASCAC Director of Media Relations)