BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU is ranked No. 9 in the D1Baseball.com preseason Top 25 poll released on Monday. The rankings are the first to be released by D1Baseball, which unveiled a revamped web site Monday morning.
A destination for college baseball scores, schedules and standings for the last 12 years, D1Baseball is adding comprehensive coverage of college baseball through the additions of ESPN personality Kyle Peterson, national writers Aaron Fitt and Kendall Rogers, and regional bloggers Mark Etheridge (Southeast), Dustin McComas (Southwest), Michael Baumann (North), and Eric Sorenson and Shotgun Spratling (West).
The Tigers, who have the most wins (150) in the nation over the past three seasons, were the NCAA Tournament No. 8 National Seed in 2014 and won the SEC Tournament for the fifth time in seven years.
LSU is one of four Southeastern Conference teams appearing in the 2015 preseason Top 10, along with No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 2 Florida and No. 5 South Carolina.
Other SEC squads appearing in the Top 25 are No. 17 Texas A&M, No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 20 Alabama and No. 25 Tennessee. LSU’s non-conference opponents appearing in the rankings are No. 7 Houston and No. 23 Nebraska.
The Tigers will begin preseason workouts at 3:15 p.m. Friday in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field. LSU opens the 2015 season at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 13 by playing host to Kansas.
The 2015 roster features 20 lettermen, including 11 position players with starting experience and eight pitchers that have recorded innings for the Tigers. The LSU veterans are complemented by a talented class of 11 newcomers, rated No. 1 in the nation this fall by Collegiate Baseball, Perfect Game and Baseball America in their annual recruiting rankings.
The D1Baseball Top 25 rankings are released every Monday morning during the season. The D1Baseball staff determines the Top 25.
Rank, Team, 2014 record, Conference
1, Vanderbilt, 51-21, SEC
2, Florida, 40-23, SEC
3, Virginia, 53-16, ACC
4, UCLA, 25-30, Pac-12
5, South Carolina, 44-18, SEC
6, North Carolina, 35-27, ACC
7, Houston, 48-18, American
8, TCU, 48-18, Big 12
9, LSU, 46-16, SEC
10, Texas, 46-21, Big 12
11, Louisville, 50-17, ACC
12, Oklahoma State, 48-18, Big 12
13, Rice, 42-20, C-USA
14, Maryland, 40-23, Big Ten
15, Miami, 44-19, ACC
16, Texas Tech, 45-21, Big 12
17, Texas A&M, 36-26, SEC
18, Ole Miss, 48-21, SEC
19, Cal State Fullerton, 34-24, Big West
20, Alabama, 37-24, SEC
21, Florida State, 43-17, ACC
22, Oregon, 44-20, Pac-12
23, Nebraska, 41-21, Big Ten
24, Arizona State, 33-24, Pac-12
25, Tennessee, 31-23, SEC