ORU's baseball team picked to win Mid Continent Conference title

(Elmhurst, Illinois-AP) -- Oral Roberts has been picked as the baseball team to beat this year by Mid-Continent Conference coaches. <br><br>The Golden Eagles received six of seven possible first-place

Friday, January 30th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(Elmhurst, Illinois-AP) -- Oral Roberts has been picked as the baseball team to beat this year by Mid-Continent Conference coaches.

The Golden Eagles received six of seven possible first-place votes. They soared ahead of Southern Utah's single first-place vote.

Centenary finished third in the poll, and Western Illinois followed in fourth. Oakland, Valparaiso and Chicago State were tabbed to finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.

Oral Roberts has won five-straight league regular-season titles and six consecutive conference tournament crowns.

The Golden Eagles lost four all-conference players from last year's team but hung onto Mid-Continent Tournament MVP Dennis Bigley.

The team also moved former assistant coach Rob Walton into the head coaching job.