BATON ROUGE — LSU received more recognition as one of the top baseball programs in the country Friday, as the Tigers are ranked No. 1 in the 2009 USA Today/ESPN coaches’ preseason poll. The USA Today/ESPN Board of Coaches is made up of 31 coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the American Baseball Coaches Association.
“It’s a great honor to receive that kind of recognition from the coaches, and it certainly generates a lot of excitement among our fans,” said LSU coach Paul Mainieri. “However, we realize the polls don’t affect what happens on the field. We have to earn everything we receive by working hard every day. We’re not going to put extra pressure on ourselves because of the No. 1 ranking; we’re going to go out each day and do what we know it takes to be successful.”
LSU was also ranked No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball magazine preseason poll released last month. The Tigers are ranked No. 2 in the NCBWA and Baseball America preseason polls.
LSU is No. 1 in a preseason poll for the first time since 1996, when the Tigers began the year at the top of the Baseball America rankings.
North Carolina is No. 2 in the USA Today/ESPN poll, followed by Rice, Georgia and Texas A&M. Stanford, Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, Florida State and Texas round out the Top 10.
No. 11 Ole Miss and No. 23 Florida join LSU and Georgia as the Southeastern Conference teams appearing in the poll.
LSU advanced to the CWS last season, finishing the year with a 49-19-1 mark. The Tigers posted an SEC-record 23-game win streak from April 22-June 1 and captured the SEC Western Division and SEC Tournament titles.
LSU returns 25 players who were significant contributors to the 2008 squad, including five who have received 2009 preseason All-America recognition — outfielder Blake Dean, pitcher Louis Coleman, second baseman Ryan Schimpf, shortstop DJ LeMahieu and catcher Micah Gibbs.
The ’09 Tigers are presently engaged in individual workouts and conditioning drills at the original Alex Box Stadium. The first full-squad practice is scheduled for Sunday, February 1.
The Tigers open the 2009 season at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 20 when they play host to Villanova in the New Alex Box Stadium.
USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 Coaches’ Baseball Poll
The USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 preseason baseball coaches’ poll, with 2008 records in parentheses, total points based on 25 points for first place through one point for 25th, ranking in the final 2008 poll and first-place votes received:
Rank
School (first-place votes)
Record
Points
Final 2008 rank
1
LSU (14)
49-19-1
738
6
2
North Carolina (12)
54-14
737
3
3
Rice (1)
47-15
673
7
4
Georgia
45-25-1
600
2
5
Texas A&M (2)
46-19
590
12
6
Stanford (1)
41-24-2
576
5
7
Arizona State
49-13
533
9
8
Cal State Fullerton
41-22
507
10
9t
Florida State
54-14
500
8
9t
Texas
39-22
500
21
11
Mississippi
39-26
431
NR
12
Georgia Tech
41-21
327
24
13
Oklahoma State
44-18
321
18
14
Miami (Fla.)
53-11
320
4
15
San Diego
44-17
304
17
16
Louisville
41-21
292
NR
17
Baylor
32-26
269
NR
18
UC-Irvine
42-18
262
11
19
Fresno State
47-31
247
1
20
Missouri
39-21
224
19
21
Pepperdine
38-21
156
NR
22
UCLA
33-27
140
NR
23
Florida
34-24
112
NR
24
Coastal Carolina
50-14
102
16
25
Clemson
31-27-1
80
NR
Others receiving votes
Kentucky (44-19) 64; Arizona (42-19) 56; Wichita State (48-17) 40; Nebraska (41-16-1) 36; TCU (44-19) 32; East Carolina (42-21) 28; North Carolina State (42-22) 28; Oklahoma (36-26) 28; Tulane (39-22) 23; Southern California (28-28) 21; Alabama (35-28) 20; Michigan (46-14) 19; Oregon State (28-24) 19; Arkansas (34-24) 17; Kent State (36-21) 16; Long Beach State (38-21) 13; Vanderbilt (41-22) 13; Auburn (28-28) 10; California (33-21) 10; South Carolina (40-23) 10; San Diego State (31-28) 5; Dallas Baptist (37-19) 3; Missouri State (40-17) 3; North Carolina-Wilmington (44-17) 3; Southern Mississippi (42-22) 3; Washington (33-22) 3; Western Kentucky (33-27) 3; James Madison (39-19) 2; Notre Dame (33-21) 2; Bethune-Cookman (36-22) 1; Elon (44-18) 1; Oral Roberts (48-14) 1; Virginia (39-23) 1.