BATON ROUGE – LSU is No. 2 in the annual Baseball America magazine recruiting rankings released Friday.
Eight players in LSU’s 2010 class were drafted, another was the NJCAA Division II Player of The Year last season and two others were named their respective high school state Players of The Year.
LSU was voted No. 1 last month in the Collegiate Baseball magazine recruiting survey.
The class features 19 student-athletes, including 11 freshmen, six junior college transfers and two four-year transfers. The newcomers and returning LSU players have been engaged in their five-week fall practice session since Sept 26. Fall practice, which is always open to the public in Alex Box Stadium, continues through Nov. 5.
The 2011 season opens at 7 p.m. on Feb. 18 when the Tigers play host to Wake Forest.
“The coming season marks a transition to a new era in our program,” LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. “We only have two players remaining from our original signing class that arrived in the fall of 2007. That class was rated No. 1 in the country and was instrumental in us winning the national championship in 2009.
“Hopefully, this new class will have the same significant impact on our program that the original class had. I think there is a really good chance for that to happen.”
LSU, leads a group of eight Southeastern Conference teams in the Top 25. Florida, which topped the rankings a year ago, checks in at No. 6 this year, followed by No. 8 Arkansas, No. 12 Vanderbilt, No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 19 South Carolina, No. 20 Auburn and No. 22 Mississippi State.
For breakdowns on the Top 25 classes, plus a look at some of the best classes by region outside the Top 25, visit www.baseballamerica.com/today/college/recruiting.
2010 BASEBALL AMERICA RECRUITING CLASS RANKINGS
1. Stanford
2. LSU
3. UCLA
4. San Diego
5. Oregon
6. Florida
7. Georgia Tech
8. Arkansas
9. Rice
10. Cal State Fullerton
11. California
12. Vanderbilt
13. North Carolina
14. Oregon State
15. Oklahoma State
16. Southern California
17. San Diego State
18. Mississippi
19. South Carolina
20. Auburn
21. Oklahoma
22. Mississippi State
23. Nebraska
24. Louisville
25. Maryland