Arkansas State first baseman, Kyle MacDonald has been selected as the Sun Belt Conference Preseason Player of the Year. MacDonald hit 15 home runs and drove in 50 runs last season earning him Sun Belt's Newcomer of the Year honors. He started 51 of A-State's 52 games earning All-Sun Belt Second Team honors.

MacDonald has also been selected to the 2019 Bobby Bragan Collegiate Slugger Award Watch List. The award open to nominations from all Division I baseball programs in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico, is based on performance at the plate, academics and personal integrity.

In other baseball news, the Sun Belt Conference will conduct its baseball regular season with divisional play. Two divisions will be comprised of six teams each, and divisional champions will be awarded at the end of the year based on the winning percentage against all teams, regardless of division. The 2019 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship will be seeded with the division winners as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, with the No. 1 seed being awarded to the divisional winner with the best conference winning percentage. The number of teams playing in the conference championship will increase from eight to 10. This would cause two additional games to be played. The first round games will include the No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed and the No. 7 seed vs. the No. 10 seed, with both contests conducted as single-elimination games on Tuesday of tournament week. The conference tournament is set for May 21-26 at Springs Brooks Stadium on the campus of Coastal Carolina.

Arkansas State travels to take on Sam Houston State. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m. Friday with Saturday's match up at 3:00 p.m. and Sunday's final at 1:00 p.m.