BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU is ranked No. 2 in the 2015 Baseball America preseason poll released Monday, marking its second ranking among the Top 4 teams in the nation. LSU is No. 4 in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper preseason poll released in December.
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 three Southeastern Conference teams appearing in the 2015 preseason Top 10, along with No. 1 Vanderbilt and No. 6 Florida.
Other SEC squads appearing in the Top 25 are No. 13 South Carolina and No. 14 Mississippi State. Houston, an LSU opponent in early March at the Houston College Classic, is No. 3 in the Baseball America poll. .
LSU opens the 2015 season at 7 p.m. on Friday, February 13 versus Kansas in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.
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.
Baseball America Preseason Top 25
2015 Rank, Team, 2014 Record, Final 2014 Rank
1. Vanderbilt, 51-21, 1
2. LSU, 46-16, 22
3. Houston, 48-18, 11
4. Virginia, 53-16, 2
5. Texas Tech, 45-21, 9
6. Florida, 40-23, 18
7. Texas Christian, 48-18, 5
8. Oklahoma State, 48-18, 10
9. Miami, 44-19, 23
10. Texas, 46-21, 4
11. UCLA, 25-30, NR
12. Louisville, 50-17, 6
13. South Carolina, 44-18, 25
14. Mississippi State, 39-24, NR
15. Rice, 42-20, NR
16. Maryland, 40-23, 14
17. North Carolina, 35-27, NR
18. Arizona State, 33-24, NR
19. Kennesaw State, 40-24, 16
20. Oregon, 44-20, NR
21. Florida State, 43-17, 19
22. Central Florida, 36-23, NR
23. Cal State Fullerton, 34-24, NR
24. Clemson, 36-25, NR
25. Liberty, 41-18, NR