BATON ROUGE — Four LSU players have been named to the Baseball America magazine Top Prospects Lists for the collegiate summer leagues.
LSU junior outfielder Leon Landry was rated the No. 14 prospect in the prestigious Cape Cod (Mass.) League and sophomore outfielder Johnny Dishon was rated No. 2 in the Valley League of Virginia.
Two LSU players appeared in the rankings of the Illinois-based Prospect League — sophomore outfielder Mikie Mahtook was rated No. 1 in the league while sophomore shortstop Austin Nola was rated No. 8.
Baseball America ranked the top prospects in 18 summer college leagues. Ole Miss and Washington State had five players each appear in the rankings.
LSU, Arkansas and Clemson each placed four players in the rankings. The Southeastern Conference led all leagues with 29 players ranked, followed by the Atlantic Coast (19), Big 12 (17), and the Pac-10 (15).
LSU led the nation last season with five players on the Top Prospects List. Those players ? Landry, outfielder Ryan Schimpf, infielder DJ LeMahieu, catcher Micah Gibbs and pitcher Austin Ross ? all helped lead LSU to the 2009 national championship.
Landry, playing this summer for the Harwich (Mass.) Mariners in the Cape Cod League, batted .364 (36-for-99) with four doubles, two homers and 12 RBI in 24 games. Dishon batted .304 (41-for-135) with 11 doubles, four homers, 37 runs and 25 RBI for the Staunton (Va.) Braves.
Though Mahtook played in just a handful of games for the Danville (Ill.) Dans in the Prospect League, he made a tremendous impression with his raw power, speed and arm strength.
Nola batted .291 for the Danville with five doubles, two triples, one homer and 17 RBI in 24 games. Nola hit for the cycle on August 5 in a game versus the DuPage (Ill.) Dragons.
LSU will conduct its fall practice period from October 13 through November 20 in Alex Box Stadium. The Tigers begin the 2010 regular season on February 19 when they play host to Centenary.