NAPERVILLE – Millikin is the favorite prior to the 2024 College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) baseball season, according to a coaches’ poll released by the league office on Thursday morning. The Big Blue earned five first-place votes, one of three squads to be voted first in the ballots collected last week.

2024 Preseason CCIW Baseball Coaches' Poll

Team (First-place votes)	Points
1. Millikin (5)	59
2. Augustana (3)	55
T3. Illinois Wesleyan (1)	49
T3. North Central	49
5. North Park	28
T6. Carroll	26
T6. Wheaton	26
8. Carthage	17
9. Elmhurst	15

 
Millikin, in search of its first regular-season league title since 1975, netted 59 points to land in the top spot. MU was 11-7 in CCIW action last season, a third-place finish in the final regular-season standings.
 
Augustana landed second in Thursday’s poll with three-first place votes and 55 points. The Vikings swept the conference’s regular-season and tournament championships last spring for the first time since 2016. The tournament title was Augie’s second in a row and its fourth since 2014.
 
Illinois Wesleyan slotted tied for third with North Central in the 2024 poll with 49 points. 
 
The Titans, who marched to extra innings in the 11th and final game of last season’s CCIW Tournament, were the recipient of one first-place vote. The upcoming season is the last for 37th-season head coach Dennis Martel, who announced on Jan. 18 he will retire following the season.
 
North Central, which claimed at least a share of seven consecutive CCIW regular-season crowns from 2015 through 2022, was the league’s runner up last season with a 12-6 record. The Cardinals won twice at the CCIW Tournament last May before falling in the ninth game of the event.
 
The next three teams in the poll were separated by just two points. North Park, a CCIW Tournament qualifier in each of the last five seasons, received 28 points for fifth position. Carroll and Wheaton tied for sixth with 26 points apiece.
 
Carthage (17 points) was eighth, followed by Elmhurst (15 points) in ninth. Former North Central assistant Joe Heller will enter his first season as head coach of the Bluejays.
 
The 2024 season is scheduled to begin in eight days. North Park will be in Lookout Mountain, Ga. next Friday, Feb. 16 to open a three-game series with Covenant College. Millikin travels to Birmingham, Ala. the same day and will open at Birmingham-Southern.
 
The first conference action is slated for Saturday, March 16. The six-team league tournament will open with a pair of quarterfinal elimination games on Wednesday, May 8 at the site of the regular-season CCIW champion.