The start of the college baseball season is nearly upon us and the SEC is once again loaded with talented teams. In the USA TODAY Sports coaches preseason poll five of the top six teams are from the SEC.
Auburn, fresh off their second run to the College World Series in three seasons, is not one of those teams as they just missed the top 25. Their 72 votes were just behind the 74 that the No. 25 Oregon Ducks received.
LSU will start the season as the No. 1 team with Tennessee (No. 2), Texas A&M (No. 4), Florida (No. 5), Arkansas (No. 6), Ole Miss (No. 7), and Vanderbilt (No. 9) all right behind them.
The Tigers will look very different than last year’s team. They will need to replace starting pitchers Trace Bright and Mason Barnett and key reliever Blake Burkhalter. The lineup will also need to be shuffled as Sonny DiChiara, Blake Rambusch, Brooks Carlson, and Brody Moore have all moved on.
[autotag]Butch Thompson[/autotag] will have some talented newcomers as the Tigers signed D1baseball’s No. 10 ranked freshman class.
The Tigers will have a chance to climb into the top 25 on Feb. 17 when they host Indiana for a three-game series in Plainsman Park to open the season.
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