BOSTON, Mass. \u2013 After a competitive 2025 campaign and a strong finish to conference play, the University at Albany baseball program has been picked to finish fourth in the 2026 America East Baseball Preseason Poll, voted on by the league\u2019s head coaches.<\/p>\n
UAlbany collected one first-place vote and finished just behind NJIT in a tightly packed top half of the standings. Binghamton was selected as the preseason favorite with 32 points and three first place votes, followed closely by Bryant with 30 points and three first place votes as well. NJIT (26), UAlbany (21), and Maine (19) followed, with UMass Lowell (11) and UMBC (8) rounding out the poll.<\/p>\n
2026 America East Baseball Preseason Poll1. Binghamton, 32 (3 First Place Votes)2. Bryant, 30 (3)3. NJIT, 264. UAlbany, 21 (1)5. Maine, 196. UMass Lowell, 117. UMBC, 8<\/p>\n
The America East also unveiled its 2026 Preseason All-Conference Team, featuring two Great Danes. Starting pitcher\u00a0Dylan Banner\u00a0and catcher\u00a0Levi McAllister\u00a0both earned preseason honors.<\/p>\n
Banner anchors the pitching staff following another solid season in which he led UAlbany in innings, starts, and strikeouts while posting one of the conference\u2019s top ERAs. McAllister returns as one of the league\u2019s most productive bats after batting over .300 last spring with power numbers, a high on-base clip, and team-leading RBI production behind the plate. Banner was named an America East First Team All-Conference selection last season, McAllister was named Second Team All-Conference.<\/p>\n
2026 America East Baseball Preseason All-Conference TeamC\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Levi McAllister\u00a0(UAlbany)1B\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dillon Can (NJIT)2B\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Zac Zyons (Bryant)SS\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Chris Bear (Maine)3B\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Anthony Mascuilli (UMBC)OF\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Matt Bolton (Binghamton)OF\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Carlos Martinez (UMass Lowell)OF\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Brody Rasmussen (Maine)OF\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ty Sallie (NJIT)DH\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Brandyn Durand (Bryant)UTIL\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Austin Francis (NJIT)SP\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Dylan Banner\u00a0(UAlbany)SP\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Michael Belcher (Bryant)SP\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Gianni Gambardella (Maine)SP\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Tarsia Hayden (Binghamton)RP\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sebastian Holt (Maine)<\/p>\n
The Great Danes return a veteran core that contributed to double-digit conference wins in 2025 and an offense that showcased on-base and run production throughout the lineup. On the mound, UAlbany\u2019s rotation and bullpen bring continuity with Banner leading a returning staff looking to build on late-season progress.<\/p>\n
UAlbany is set to host another full slate at Varsity Field this spring, including key America East series against UMBC, UMass Lowell, NJIT, and Binghamton, along with a competitive non-conference schedule.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON, Mass. \u2013 After a competitive 2025 campaign and a strong finish to conference play, the University at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":535099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2289],"tags":[5,648,1703,1694,2341,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-536004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-college-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-college-baseball","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-ncaa","12":"tag-ncaa-baseball","13":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115949776679982448","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/535099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}