HELENA, Mont. – Bellevue (Neb.) tallied five first place votes and 25 points to secure the top spot in the 2026 Frontier Conference Baseball Coaches' Preseason Poll, the conference announced Monday morning.
 
Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams.  The Frontier Conference will have their first ever baseball league this season, with six schools participating.
 
First place is worth five points, second place is worth four points, third place is worth three points, and so on to the last place with one point. 
 
Valley City State finds itself picked fourth in the poll. The Vikings had a good fall portion of their schedule going 3-2. It was the best winning percentage of all the teams thay participated in fall games.
 
The Vikings hit .289 as a team in the fall led by Connor Hoyt. The Senior from Jamestown hit .400 in five games and led the team with five RBI. He also led the team in hits, runs scored, and total bases. Newcomer Nick Senn proved a solid addition to the roster by hitting .353 and starting all five games behind the plate. The Junior from Visalia, California led the team in walks with four and on-base percentage at .476.

Returners Kaden Rozdeba, Cody Wielgosh, and Porter Jorgenson all hit over .300 for the fall. Rozdeba hit .353, Wielgosh and Jorgenson hit .308. Wielgosh also led the team with three stolen bases.

Sophomore lefty Connor Martin led the pitching staff with a 3.21 ERA in 14 innings pitched. He had 18 strikeouts in those 14 innings and was 1-0. Grady Shipman lone appearance was a solid five-inning, three-hit, one-run outing against Mayville State. Eli Chabot did not allow a run in 4 2/3 innings. He allowed one hit and struck out five. Takao Cookson had one win and one save in 9 1/3 innings.

Once the fall season ended, the Vikings played their World Series. The VCSU Baseball World Series is a competitive series of in-house scrimmages that the team plays in a world series-style format of best 4 out of 7 games. Team Row won this year's contest in a crazy final day that featured a game 6 comeback from Team Row while facing elimination, before winning game 7 comfortably during the backend of the doubleheader. Here were the awards and all-series team from the VCSU Baseball Fall World Series:

Most Valuable Player: Jackson Penner
Most Valuable Pitcher: Michael Simbulan
Gold Glove: Grady Shipman
Best Teammate Award: Connor Hoyt
 
All Tournament Team:
Outfield: Connor Hoyt, Diesel Goya
Infield: Kaden Rozdeba, Jackson Penner
Catcher or DH: Porter Jorgenson
Pitcher: Michael Simbulan, Easton Francis
The Vikings will start the spring schedule in February when they head to McPherson, Kansas for four games. They then play three games versus Mount Marty in Yankton, South Dakota before heading to Orlando, Florida for two weeks in March.
 
The Bruins went 40-15 overall record and 19-1 record in the former North Star Athletic Association last season (won six straight regular season titles).  BU also qualified for the NAIA National Tournament for the 14^th consecutive season, where they fell in the Opening Round.
 
Bellevue also had won the previous four conference postseason tournament titles in the NSAA conference.
 
Dakota State registered the final first place votes and 20 points to finish second in the preseason poll.  Dickinson State (N.D.), who also played in the NAIA National Tournament Opening Round last season, was third with 15 points.
 
Valley City State (N.D.) finished fourth in the poll with eight points, Mayville State (N.D.) fifth with seven points, and Bismarck State (N.D.) sixth with five points.
 
There will be preseason round-robin tournament on March 21-22 at the Sanford Sports Complex in Sioux Falls, S.D.  The Frontier Conference contests officially begin on March 27-28, where each team will play four-game series.  There will be a mid-week conference contest between traveling partners (BU-DaSU, DiSU-BSC, and VCSU-MSU).  
 
The 2026 Frontier Conference Baseball Tournament will be hosted by Dickinson State at Dakota Community Bank & Trust Ballpark in Dickinson, N.D.  The postseason tournament kicks off Friday, May 1, 2026. 
 
The winner of the conference postseason tournament receives an automatic bid to the NAIA Baseball National Tournament Opening Round on May 11-14, 2026, at various campus sites.   The opening round winners move on to the Avista-NAIA Baseball World Series at Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) in Lewiston, Idaho, on May 22-30, 2026.
 
Stay tuned to fcsports.org for the 2026 Frontier Conference Baseball Virtual Media Day schedule in mid-January.
 
Below is the complete 2026 Frontier Conference Baseball Coaches' Preseason Poll:
  

2026 Frontier Conference Baseball Preseason Coaches' Poll
Rank	School (First Place Votes)	Total Points
1	Bellevue (Neb.) (5)	25
2	Dakota State (S.D.) (1)	20
3	Dickinson State (N.D.)	15
4	Valley City State (N.D.)	8
5	Mayville State (N.D.)	7
6	Bismarck State (N.D.)	5

 
Don't forget to download the Frontier Conference app, in partnership with Snap! Mobile.  The app is free to download in the App Store on Apple or Google Play for Android.  Click here to download the Frontier Conference app.