Tag: Baseball America

Oklahoma rejoins D1Baseball top 25 at No. 18 after undefeated week

OU is riding a seven game winning streak and went from being unranked to the highest ranked Big 12 team in this week’s D1Baseball poll.

Oklahoma took its first and last trip to Provo as Big 12 baseball members and walked away with a sweep. It was the Sooners’ fourth sweep in conference play and helped push OU back into the D1Baseball Top 25.

The Sooners went from unranked to No. 18 in the latest D1Baseball poll after their showing against the Cougars. Their performance cemented their first-place spot in the Big 12 and extended their win streak to seven straight games.

Oklahoma has been on a heater as they pushed out to a 14-4 Big 12 record, three games clear of three teams tied for second place.

The Sooners are one of two Big 12 teams in the Top 25, along with their in-state foes, Oklahoma State. Texas A&M, Arkansas, and Tennessee are the top three in that order. Kentucky, Clemson, and Duke round out the top six. East Carolina, Wake Forest, Oregon State, and the Florida State Seminoles round out the top 10.

 

Oklahoma State is just three spots back of Oklahoma at No. 19. The Cowboys dropped four spots after a 1-3 week on the diamond.

Oklahoma is ranked 16th by Baseball America, while Perfect Game has the Sooners ranked 23rd in their latest rankings.

The Sooners will continue its pursuit of the Big 12 regular season title and the top seed in the Big 12 tournament as it hosts Wichita State for a midweek game on Tuesday and will host Red River rivals Texas for a weekend series.

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The Texas A&M baseball team is the unanimous No. 1 team in the country

The Aggies are at the top of the rankings in every major poll after a stellar week on the diamond

The Texas A&M Aggie baseball team (32-4, 11-4 SEC) has the best overall record in Division One college baseball and the third-best record in the conference. A trio of events allowed the Aggies to move into the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2016.

First, the A&M took care of business last week, going 4-0 while beating a good UTSA team in the midweek game before blowing the doors of No. 6 Vanderbilt in a three-game sweep. The second and third Arkansas and Clemson lost their conference games 2-1 over the weekend. These three things ensured the Maroon & White would game a jump to the top spot.

They have been proving a lot since dropping their conference series opener and arguably have the best lineup in the country with the most dangerous 1 through 3. Gavin Grahovac, Jace LaViolette, and Braden Montgomery have combined for 48 home runs with 141 RBI through 36 games. The significant improvement in the pitching this year has also played a major part in the Aggies’ staying in a game where the bats might not have been the best.

As of Week 9, there is no better team in the nation. Everyone agrees.

Texas A&M will face Air Force on Tuesday, April 16, at 4:00 p.m. CT, where the game will air on SEC Network+.

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Oregon baseball appears in Top 25 for the first time this season

For the first time this year, the Ducks are being ranked inside the top-25, according to Baseball America.

The Oregon Ducks baseball team is meeting expectations and now it is finally being recognized for its efforts.

Oregon is 19-7 overall and 6-3 in Pac-12 play as the season is almost half over and now the Ducks have appeared in the Baseball America Top 25 for the first time this year.

The Ducks, who are in first place in the Pac-12, come into this week’s ranking as the No. 20 team in the country. Baseball America says the recent schedule has and will play in Oregon’s favor to rack up the wins.

Oregon swept Seattle and moves into the Top 25 for the first time this season. While the Ducks were on their conference bye, they moved into first place in the Pac-12 and have won eight of their last nine games. They’ll look to stay hot as they hit the road this week, first at Portland, which stands atop the West Coast Conference standings, and then UCLA, which sits in the Pac-12 cellar. — Baseball America

Traditionally a strong baseball conference, the Pac-12 has just one other team ranked and that is Oregon State, who dropped several spots due to its series loss to USC over the last weekend.

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After massive sweep of No. 18 TCU, OU baseball lands in D1Baseball’s top 25 at No. 17

Oklahoma lands in D1Baseball’s Top 25 for the first time this season after sweeping No.18 TCU.

This OU baseball team has been playing some inspired baseball recently. The Sooners have now reeled off back-to-back conference sweeps to start the 2024 conference schedule.

Despite a midweek loss to their Bedlam rivals Oklahoma State, the Sooners went 4-1 last week. Their conquest of the TCU Horned Frogs in Fort Worth raised plenty of eyebrows and was more than enough for the Sooners to go from unranked to No. 17 in the latest D1Baseball Top 25.

TCU was No. 12 in the country when the Sooners played this weekend, and now they are 18th, directly behind the Sooners. With Oklahoma’s inclusion into the mix, the Big 12 has two teams in the top 25. Texas and Texas Tech both fell out in this latest update after each team lost two games last week.

At the top, Arkansas remains the nation’s number-one team. Oregon State is behind them, followed by perennial powerhouse Vanderbilt at three—Clemson, LSU, and Florida slot in at four, five, and six. Texas A&M, Tennessee, Duke, and ECU round out the top 10.

The Sooners also were ranked 14th by Baseball America and 18th by Perfect Game USA.

After four straight wins against teams from the state of Texas, Oklahoma will look to keep it going on Tuesday at L. Dale Mitchell Park for a midweek matchup vs. No. 15 Dallas Baptist on Tuesday night. Dallas Baptist beat Oklahoma earlier this season, 11-7, when the two met in Dallas for a midweek affair.

 

Duke now top ACC team at No. 6 in latest D1Baseball poll, the highest rank in school history

Duke ascends to No. 6 in latest D1Baseball poll after a series victory over top-ranked Wake Forest, the highest ranking in program history.

Duke’s series win over the then-No. 1 Wake Forest Demon Deacons sent some pretty sizable ripples through the rest of the collegiate baseball landscape.

The series win vindicated Duke as a team that everyone should be cognizant of going forward, and it also sent a message to the rest of the ACC that things will not be a breeze for Wake Forest to just coast to a regular-season title.

Duke made the trip from Durham, NC, to Winston-Salem this past weekend and took two of three from the previously top-ranked Demon Deacons. That win had a massive effect on the latest D1Baseball poll.

Duke is now the highest-ranked ACC team in the country, having leaped from 12th to 6th, which marks the highest ranking in program history by D1Baseball.

Duke had a 3-1 week in total, which started with a 28-2 dismantling of the Appalachian State Mountaineers in the middle of the week before they made their trip to take on Wake Forest to open ACC play.

Arkansas is now the No. 1-ranked team in the country. Wake Forest dropped six spots to seventh.

Elsewhere in the ACC, Clemson remains steady at 10th after another undefeated week of action. NC State moved up one spot to No. 13 in the newest poll. UNC also moved up one place, going from 16th to 15th. Virginia suffered two losses to the Miami Hurricanes last week and fell four spots from 13th to 17th.

In their latest rankings, Baseball America ranked Duke No. 3, and Perfect Game ranked the Blue Devils No. 5.

The Blue Devils will continue its journey to ascend into the top five with two midweek games against Rider starting Tuesday. They follow that up with another top-10 matchup as Clemson gets set to come to town to start a three-game set on Friday.

Florida baseball drops in rankings after opening weekend

Opening weekend did not go as planned for Florida baseball, and the Gators have dropped in the rankings as a result.

The college baseball season began this weekend, and now the world has an idea of what each team in the country has to offer. As a result, the various rankings across college baseball have received an update, and Florida’s 0-1 series loss to St. John’s has the Gators moving down those lists.

D1Baseball dropped Florida from No. 2 overall to No. 4, Baseball America dropped UF from No. 4 to No. 5 and Perfect Game moved Florida from No. 2 to No. 6, according to a graphic posted on social media.

It’s only natural for Florida to take a dip in these rankings after a rough opening weekend. The Gators lost on opening night, 9-5, and the other two games in the series were canceled due to weather.

Florida has a chance to get back to .500 quickly with a Tuesday matchup with a home-and-home series against North Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday. Then, the Gators host Columbia — an NCAA Tournament team from a year ago — for a bit of a test.

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Texas baseball begins quest for trip No. 39 to College World Series

Texas’ final baseball season in the Big 12 and journey to Omaha starts Friday night.

Baseball excellence resumes in Austin on Friday night. The Texas Longhorns will open their final Big 12 baseball season with a nonconference battle with San Diego Toreros, the university that produced MLB star Kris Bryant, at Disch-Falk Field.

The Longhorns are widely viewed as a contender to make the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. The program is head and shoulders above the rest of college baseball in World Series appearances with 38. They will look to make it 39 in 2024.

The upcoming season marks the end of Big 12 baseball for Texas after playing in the league since 1997. It sets up big matchups with recent baseball rivals TCU and Texas Tech among others.

Starting pitcher Labarron Johnson Jr. leads the Longhorns into what projects to be a memorable season. Fellow pitcher Tanner Witt, outfielder Porter Brown, third baseman Peyton Powell, outfielder Jared Thomas and second baseball Jack O’Dowd return as key players for the team.

Freshman Will Gasparino was at one point given a Top-100 draft rating, but instead chose to play outfield for Texas. The top prospect could play a big role in improving the Texas lineup in 2024.

The schedule features plenty of teams that should fire up Texas faithful. The Astros Foundation College Classic at Minute Maid park gives the Longhorns matchups with the LSU Tigers, Texas State Bobcats and Vanderbilt Commodores. That slate begins with the Tigers on Mar. 1.

LSU, of course, comes off a national title victory in 2023. Vanderbilt has made two of the last four World Series finals and won it all in 2019 while Texas State has been a program on the rise in recent seasons. The trio of games won’t determine the success of the season, but will provide NCAA tournament-quality opponents early in the year.

Texas follows the classic invitational with Texas A&M at home on March 5. Next, the team faces a three-game road battle over that weekend with Texas Tech March 8-10.

In other notable games for the year, the Longhorns will play host to the Washington Huskies (Mar. 15-17), TCU Horned Frogs (April 19-21) and Oklahoma State Cowboys (May 3-5). The team will face Oklahoma in Norman, April 26-28.

Texas has the pieces to contend for Omaha again in 2024. They begin that championship push on Friday against San Diego at 7 p.m. CT on the Longhorn Network.

Two Tigers named preseason All-Americans by Baseball America

LSU starts its 2024 season next Friday against VMI.

Baseball America has released its preseason All-American list and two LSU Tigers have made the list. Third baseman [autotag]Tommy White[/autotag] and right-handed pitcher [autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag] are the two Tigers that made the list.

White and Hurd are two of the Tigers star players who are returning from last year. White, a junior from St. Pete Beach, Florida, finished last season with a .374 batting average with 24 doubles, 24 homers and 105 RBI. His biggest highlight last year was hitting a walk-off homer against Wake Forest in Omaha during the College World Series.

Hurd, a junior from Manhattan Beach, California, finished last season with an 8-2 record and a 5.68 ERA. His ERA is a little elevated due to the struggles he had at the start of the 2023 season. He ended the year on a high note as he pitched the series-clinching game against Florida in the College World Series.

LSU starts its 2024 season next Friday against VMI.

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Where LSU stands in Baseball America’s preseason field of 64

The Tigers will enter the 2024 season looking to defend their national title from a year ago.

We’re just over a week out from the first pitch of the 2024 college baseball season as LSU looks to defend its national title in Year 3 under coach [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag].

There’s a lot of time between now and selection Monday on Memorial Day, but as things currently stand, there’s a lot of optimism surrounding the Tigers despite everything they lost from last year’s campaign.

LSU is universally considered a top-five team entering 2024, and in Baseball America’s preseason NCAA tournament field of 64 predictions, it’s the No. 2 national seed behind Wake Forest.

Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill projects a regional field in Baton Rouge that includes UConn, Louisiana and Southern. Based on this projection, LSU would host a super regional against Coastal Carolina if chalk won out.

Certainly, these predictions don’t mean much right now. But they do show that the expectations for this team are high, even without the top two picks in the 2023 MLB draft, Paul Skenes and Dylan Crews.

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Follow Tyler to continue the conversation on Twitter: @TylerNettuno

Some familiar faces make Baseball Americas’ Preseason All-American team

Baseball America names Aggies’ Jace LaViolette and Braden Montgomery to their Preseason All-American teams.

Once is a chance, twice is a coincidence, and three times is a pattern. Jace LaViolette and Braden Montgomery pull off the hat trick after being named to their third Preseason All-American team. After making the Perfect Game and D1Baseball Preseason All-American Teams, Baseball America named both to the second team in their publication.

LaViolette was named to every All-Freshman team he was up for last season and broke the freshman home run record and transfer Braden Montgomery was a Pac 12 All-Conference selection en route to a College World Series appearance. If things pan out how for Coach Jim Schlossnagle both will be part of a return to Omaha.

We are quickly approaching opening day, and the Aggies are ready to welcome McNeese State to Olsen Field on February 16th.

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