The Florida Gators baseball team enters the 2021 season with sky-high expectations, especially after their dominant run last year before the coronavirus cancelation. On Thursday, the Southeastern Conference added a healthy heaping to that pile when it announced that UF will begin the 2021 season at No. 1 in the 30th annual preseason poll as voted by the league’s 14 coaches.
When factoring in the amount of talent returning due to a truncated Major League Baseball draft in 2020, in which the Gators’ only notable loss was Austin Langworthy who signed with the Detroit Tigers as an undrafted free agent, UF’s returning roster is a behemoth to be reckoned with — not just within the conference, but nationally. The Gators are essentially a consensus top team according to D1Baseball, Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball, all three of whom are reputable publications in the industry.
Additionally, the conference announced that sophomore outfielder Jud Fabian was voted a Preseason All-SEC First Team selection, along with three Gators – junior right-handed pitcher Tommy Mace, freshman infielder Josh Rivera, and sophomore right-handed pitcher Ben Specht – who were picked as Preseason All-SEC Second Team picks.
Fabian’s honor was not the first this preseason for the highly-touted outfielder, who also earned D1Baseball’s SEC Player of the Year honor as well as being a unanimous choice for the Baseball America’s All-America First Team; Mace also made the latter list on the Third Team.
4️⃣ on the Preseason All-SEC squad@judfabe – 1st Team (OF)@MaceTommy – 2nd Team (SP)@joshrivera24 – 2nd Team (SS)@benspecht55 – 2nd Team (RP)
📰: https://t.co/kIcVp1qaID#GoGators pic.twitter.com/E4rESXvGH7
— Florida Gators Baseball (@GatorsBB) February 11, 2021
The top-ranked Gators open the 2021 season with a bang, hosting the No. 21 Miami Hurricanes for its inaugural three-game series at the brand new Florida Ballpark scheduled to begin on Friday, Feb. 19.
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