BUZZARDS BAY, Mass. -- The Bears of Bridgewater State University are the pre-season pick to win the 2013 Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference Softball championship in a vote of the league’s coaches.

Bidgewater State captured four first place votes to amass 58 points in taking the top spot in the poll, as defending tournament champion Salem State grabbed two first place votes to collect 53 points in claiming the runner-up spot.

Westfield State is next in third place with 45 points and a first place vote, while defending regular season champion Worcester State is in fourth place with 42 points that includes the other first place vote. Framingham State and Fitchburg State follow in fifth and sixth place, respectively, with 39 and 24 points, while MCLA and Massachusetts Maritime round out this year’s poll in respective seventh and eighth place with 19 and eight points.

The Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, the nation’s oldest Division III men’s and women’s playing conference, has a rich and storied tradition of competitive success while celebrating excellence in the classroom. MASCAC member schools include Bridgewater State University, Fitchburg State University, Framingham State University, MCLA, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Salem State University, Westfield State University and Worcester State University.

Two other institutions, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Plymouth State University, are affiliate members of the conference in the sports of football and men’s ice hockey, while Western Connecticut State University will join the conference as an affiliate member in the sport of football for the 2013-14 academic year.

(Courtesy of Jim Seavey, MASCAC Director of Media Relations)