KALAMAZOO, Mich. – The Western Michigan baseball team was picked to finish third in the Mid-American Conference (MAC) West Division in the MAC Preseason Coaches' poll.

The Broncos were picked behind Central Michigan (56 points) and Ball State (53 points) with 42 points and one MAC Tournament Champion vote. Rounding out the West Division is Toledo (41 points), Northern Illinois (24 points) and Eastern Michigan (15 points). The Chippewa's received six first place votes and the Cardinals got three while WMU and NIU each got one.

Kent State was picked to win the East Division with 63 total points and nine first place votes. The Golden Flashes, who were the 2015 regular season champions, received four MAC Tournament Champion votes. Rounding out the East Division was the 2015 MAC Tournament Champion Ohio (55 points), Bowling Green (43 points), Miami (37 points) and Buffalo (22 points).

Last season, the Broncos finished 22-30 overall and 13-14 in the MAC taking fourth place in the West. Head coach Billy Gernon has guided WMU to the MAC Tournament in four of his five seasons at the helm. The 2015 edition of the Broncos reached the MAC Tournament as the seventh-seed and proceeded to stun the MAC East champion Kent State Golden Flashes, with Derek Schneider hurling a complete game shutout in the first round game to knock the Flashes out of the winners' bracket.  It was the first post season complete game shutout in WMU history.  WMU just narrowly fell to eventual champion Ohio in the semifinal round, dropping an extra innings decision to the Bobcats.

The Broncos will head south to the state of Georgia to kick off the season at the Atlanta Challenge, first by taking on Georgia State on Friday, Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. WMU will then battle Atlantic Coast Conference foe Georgia Tech, who is receiving votes in the USA Today Coaches' Poll, on Saturday, Feb. 20 at 2 p.m. and finish the weekend with a matchup against Kennesaw State on Sunday, Feb. 21 at 1 p.m.