Gators baseball ranked sixth

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).

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC

1 COMMENT

  1. 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.