For the seventh-straight season Kevin O’Sullivan’s ball club will begin the season ranked according to the Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 40 NCAA Division I Preseason Poll, which was released on Monday.
The Gators baseball team comes in ranked sixth in the nation. Defending national champion Vanderbilt headlines the publications’ top five, followed by TCU, Virginia, LSU and Oklahoma State.
The Gators are coming off of a season that saw them return to the top of the SEC, winning their third SEC crown in the past five seasons. Returning from that championship squad are 22 letter winners, including junior leaders Harrison Bader (who has led the team in batting the past two seasons), Richie Martin and a slew of sophomore arms including A.J. Puk, Logan Shore, Brett Morales and Kirby Snead.
Florida will kick off the season on Valentine’s Day weekend, hosting Rhode Island. Florida has close to half of its games versus opponents who advanced to the 2014 NCAA Tournament, including home series against Alabama, Kentucky, Miami and South Carolina, and will have a pair of road series against teams that advanced to Omaha (Ole Miss and Vanderbilt).
Florida is one-of-six SEC teams to be ranked in the poll and 10 SEC teams in total were either ranked or received votes.
2015 Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s NCAA Division I Preseason Poll
Rank | School (’14 Final Record) | Points |
Vanderbilt (51-21) | 494 | |
TCU (48-18) | 492 | |
Virginia (53-16) | 489 | |
LSU (46-16-1) | 487 | |
Oklahoma State (48-18) | 485 | |
FLORIDA (40-23) | 483 | |
Texas (46-21) | 480 | |
Houston (48-18) | 479 | |
Texas Tech (45-21) | 477 | |
UCLA (25-30-1) | 473 | |
Florida State (43-17) | 469 | |
Louisville (50-17) | 468 | |
Cal Poly (47-12) | 467 | |
Miami (FL) (44-19) | 465 | |
Oregon (44-20) | 462 | |
UC Santa Barbara (34-17-1) | 460 | |
Cal State Fullerton (34-24) | 458 | |
Stanford (35-26) | 457 | |
Arizona State (33-24) | 454 | |
Mississippi State (39-24) | 452 | |
South Carolina (44-18) | 449 | |
Rice (42-20) | 446 | |
Liberty (41-18) | 445 | |
North Carolina (35-27) | 443 | |
College of Charleston (44-19) | 440 | |
Georgia Tech (37-27) | 438 | |
Kennesaw State (40-24) | 436 | |
Clemson (36-25) | 432 | |
St. John’s (35-20) | 430 | |
Kent State (36-23) | 427 | |
Ball State (39-18) | 425 | |
Wichita State (31-28) | 424 | |
Tennessee (31-23) | 421 | |
San Diego (34-20) | 419 | |
Loyola Marymount (32-24) | 417 | |
Arkansas (40-25) | 414 | |
Maryland (40-23) | 412 | |
Nebraska (41-21) | 411 | |
UC Irvine (41-25) | 409 | |
Illinois (32-21) | 405 |
Other Teams Receiving Votes: Oregon State (49-15), San Diego State (42-21), UL-Lafayette (58-10), Kentucky (37-25), Washington (41-17-1), Ole Miss (48-21), Southern California (29-24), Alabama (37-24), Texas A&M (36-26), Arizona (22-33), New Mexico (37-20), UNLV (36-25), Dallas Baptist (40-21), Indiana State (35-18), Sacramento State (40-24), Troy (25-32), Texas State (30-28), Pepperdine (43-18), Grand Canyon (30-23), Miami (OH) (30-27), Southern Miss (35-25), FIU (36-20), Indiana (44-15), Sam Houston State (43-19), Michigan (30-29-1), UCF (36-23), Florida Gulf Coast (39-22), Stony Brook (35-18), St. Louis (34-21-1), Seton Hall (39-15), Creighton (32-17-1), Campbell (41-21), South Alabama (22-33), Winthrop (27-30), Coastal Carolina (24-33), William & Mary (34-22), Wright State (35-22), Central Michigan (35-23), Bryant (42-16), SE Missouri State (37-20), Tennessee Tech (40-19), Mercer (38-17), Samford (35-25), Western Carolina (37-18), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (31-27), Southeastern Louisiana (38-25).
Wooo! Baseball season is approaching!! haha I’m sure I’m one of of maybe 3 people who actually look forward to it.
We played surprisingly well for how young we were last year, so hopefully with a little more experience we can make it further in the tourny this year. Thanks for the update Nick.