BATON ROUGE, La. — LSU is ranked No. 4 in the 2015 USA Today coaches preseason poll released this week, marking its third ranking among the Top 4 teams in the nation.
LSU is No. 2 in the Baseball America preseason rankings and No. 4 in the Collegiate Baseball preseason poll.
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 USA Today preseason Top 10, along with No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 5 Florida and No. 10 South Carolina.
Other SEC squads appearing in the Top 25 are No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 23 Texas A&M and No. 25 Mississippi State. Houston, an LSU opponent in early March at the Houston College Classic, is No. 11 in the USA Today 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.
USA Today Top 25
Rank, Team, Record, Points (1st Place Votes), Previous
1, Vanderbilt, 51-21, 768 (26) 1
2, Virginia, 53-16, 731 (4) 2
3, TCU, 48-18, 666 (1) 5
4, LSU, 46-16, 607, 16
5, Florida, 40-23, 593, 24
6, Texas, 46-21, 555, 3
7, Louisville, 50-17, 491, 6
7, Oklahoma State, 48-18, 491, 10
9, UCLA, 25-30-1, 459, NR
10, South Carolina, 44-18, 456, 22
11, Houston, 48-18, 435, 11
12, Florida State, 43-17, 409, 21
13, Texas Tech, 45-21, 360, 8
14, Miami, 44-19, 342, 23
15, North Carolina, 35-27, 322, NR
16, Oregon, 44-20, 290, 27
17, Rice, 42-20, 259, 25
18, Ole Miss, 48-21, 212, 4
19, Cal St. Fullerton, 34-24, 211, 34
20, Maryland, 40-23, 202, 13
21, Arizona State, 33-24, 151, NR
22, Stanford, 35-26, 143, 15
23, Texas A&M, 36-26, 123, 29
24, Cal Poly, 47-12, 115, 18
25, Mississippi State, 39-24, 99, 28
Others Receiving Votes
Oregon State 74; Alabama 73; Louisiana-Lafayette 64; UC-Irvine 56; Pepperdine 42; Tennessee 34; Nebraska 34; Charleston 32; Arkansas 30; Kennesaw State 30; UC-Santa Barbara 30; Liberty 23; Georgia Tech 17; Illinois 9; Clemson 8; Loyola Marymount 7; Indiana 6; St. John?s 6; Washington 3; Western Carolina 2; North Carolina-Wilmington 2; New Mexico 1; Sam Houston State 1; Ball State 1.