The Shorter Hawks baseball team was picked to finish 10th in the Gulf South Conference standings this season. The GSC poll was voted on by head coaches of the respective teams. The coaches once again picked West Alabama as the favorite to win the Gulf South Regular Season and Tournament titles. In 2015, the Tigers finished 42-11, with a 26-6 mark in conference play. Ranked at No. 8, UWA is the highest ranked Gulf South Conference team in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Preseason Poll. Fellow GSC teams West Georgia (No. 27), Alabama Huntsville (No. 30), and West Florida (No. 39) are also ranked.

This season, the Hawks will be led by first year head coach Wes Timmons. Timmons comes to Shorter from North Carolina A&T where he spent two seasons as an assistant. Prior to joining the Aggies coaching staff, he enjoyed a 10-year professional baseball career. Drafted in the 12th round of the 2002 First-Year Player Draft by the Atlanta Braves, Timmons spent the first eight years of his career with the Braves before signing with the Oakland Athletics in September 2010. He ended his professional baseball career in 2012, playing in over 1,000 minor league games. His final statistics include a .280 batting average, with 48 home runs and 408 runs batted in.

A duo of returners headlines the Hawks 2016 roster. Dustin Lawson, a 6'1 junior catcher, appeared in 45 contests last year, making 44 starts. Lawson hit .293 in 2015, registering 45 hits, nine of which went for extra bases. Junior outfielder Brian Cabrera saw action in 41 games, starting 40. He finished the season with a .286 batting average, and led the team in walks (18) and stolen bases (15).

Shorter did not have any players named to the 2016 Preseason All-GSC Team, but two Hawks received nominations to the 2016 Top Newcomers to the GSC list. A pair of sophomores, Raul Cortes and Jerry Liang were the Hawks named to the list. Cortes, an outfielder, comes to SU from Palm Beach Community College. Liang, a right-handed pitcher, arrives at Shorter via North Carolina A&T, the same school where Coach Wes Timmons was an assistant for the past two seasons.

Shorter opens its season on Saturday, February 6 at Spring Hill College. The teams will play a double header, with the first game set to start at 1 PM EST from Mobile, Alabama. The first home game for the Hawks is scheduled for February 10, as Carson Newman comes to Rome. Gulf South Conference play begins on February 20, when the Hawks travel to take on Union University in Jackson, Tennessee.