LATROBE, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona baseball team was predicted to finish in sixth place this season by league coaches, as the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference announced its 2026 Preseason Coaches' Poll in the sport on Wednesday morning.

Penn State Behrend, the back-to-back defending conference champion, took first place in the poll, while Pitt-Greensburg and Alfred State College were voted second and third, respectively.

Penn State Altoona baseball went 14-24-1 overall last spring, including a 4-10 mark within the AMCC that placed the team seventh in the league's regular season standings. The Lions' 2026 roster is comprised of 44 players, leaning heavy on newcomers. Head coach RJ Barnard enters his 10th year at the helm of the program and will aim to guide his team back up the conference standings this season.

Named as Players to Watch in the preseason poll were senior outfielder Brian Chelli (West Hartford, CT/Hall) and senior first baseman/left-handed pitcher Jonathan Rauch (Pittsburgh, PA/Baldwin).

In 34 games last season, Chelli led Penn State Altoona in batting average (.367) while ranking second among all hitters in the AMCC in sacrifice flies (5), third in stolen bases (18), sixth in triples (2), seventh in doubles (11) and slugging percentage (.560), and 11th in batting average and runs batted in (33).

Rauch was limited to six games during an injury-shortened 2025 campaign, during which he hit .350 (7-for-20) with five RBI, four runs scored, and two doubles. The senior, who holds a .364 career batting average with 28 extra-base hits and 77 RBI, looks to get back on track this season.

Penn State Altoona baseball opens its 2026 schedule on the road Saturday, February 21, when the Lions head to Virginia to face Mary Baldwin University in a doubleheader starting at 12 p.m.