Tag: Baseball America

Four Tigers land on Baseball America’s All-America teams

The Tigers’ roster is absolutely loaded in 2023.

The accolades continue to roll in for LSU baseball. This time, they come by way of Baseball America, which released its Preseason All-America teams this week with four Tigers making the list.

[autotag]Dylan Crews[/autotag], [autotag]Tommy White[/autotag] and [autotag]Paul Skenes[/autotag] all made the First-Team while [autotag]Tre Morgan[/autotag] made the Second-Team.

Crews and Morgan are two superstars for LSU that have been with the Tigers for a while. Both of them represented LSU on Team USA last year. Crews, a centerfielder who is projected as the No. 1 player in the 2023 MLB Draft, is the best college baseball player in the country, regardless of position.

Morgan is a wizard with his glove at first base.

White and Skenes are both transfers. White came to LSU from NC State where he broke the school record for most home runs in one season by a freshman. Skenes came to LSU from Air Force where he was a star on the mound and at the plate.

LSU starts the season on Feb. 17 at home against Western Michigan.

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Tigers ranked in Baseball America’s preseason poll

Auburn is one of eight SEC teams ranked in the poll.

The SEC has made its presence known in the first preseason baseball poll.

The Auburn Tigers came in at No. 22 in Baseball America’s first top 25 preseason poll, but they’re far from the only SEC team featured. The poll features eight SEC teams, of which Auburn is lowest ranked — the top three teams in LSU, Tennessee and Florida all hail from the Southeastern Conference. The Tigers will look to improve on last year’s results where a loss to Arkansas ended the team’s season in Omaha.

Auburn comes in at the back of the poll after two victories in its fall exhibitions, one a 12-11 win over Louisiana Tech and the other 13-8 victory over the Alabama Crimson Tide. It should be an interesting year for the Tigers, as a good portion of the roster that made the team so talented last year has been drafted to MLB. Despite this, players Bobby Peirce, Tommy Sheehan, Mike Bello and Joseph Gonzalez will be back on the Plains for the upcoming season.

The Tigers will get their first chance to improve on their ranking on Feb. 17 when they begin a three-game home series against the Indiana Hoosiers at 6 p.m. CT. The team will play its first SEC team on Mar. 23 against the Georgia Bulldogs.

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LSU has the No. 1 transfer class in the nation, per Baseball America

The Tigers have been very active in improving the roster since the end of the 2022 season.

It has been an interesting offseason for [autotag]Jay Johnson[/autotag] and the LSU baseball team.

The Tigers have had players join the team by way of transferring and by graduating high school, but a few of the guys that were committed to playing for LSU were then picked up in the 2022 MLB draft.

Baseball America recently made a list of who they thought had the best 25 transfer classes in all of college baseball, and LSU came in at No. 1. The class features right-handed pitcher [autotag]Christian Little[/autotag] of Vanderbilt; third baseman [autotag]Tommy White[/autotag] of North Carolina State; right-handed pitcher [autotag]Thatcher Hurd[/autotag] of UCLA; right-handed pitcher/utility player [autotag]Paul Skenes[/autotag] of Air Force; and infielder [autotag]Ben Nippolt[/autotag] of Virginia Commonwealth.

Here is the breakdown from Baseball America.

With a .362 average and 27 home runs as a freshman a season ago, Tommy White showed that he’s already one of the best hitters in college baseball, period, and more than good enough to set aside question marks about his defensive viability.

Paul Skenes is an accomplished power hitter in his own right, with a .367/.453/.669 career slash line at Air Force with 24 home runs, and there is optimism about his ability to handle the defensive rigors of catching in the SEC. It will be interesting to see how that is balanced with his time on the mound, where he features a mid-90s fastball that touches the high 90s, a swing-and-miss mid-80s slider and a high-80s changeup that flashes plus.

Infielder Ben Nippolt, a late addition to the class from VCU, had a .430 on-base percentage and walked more than he struck out last season, but perhaps more valuable to the Tigers is his ability to play just about anywhere on the infield.

Right-hander Thatcher Hurd had a 1.06 ERA in 34 innings last season and looked like one of the best freshman arms in the country right up until a back injury ended his season prematurely. If he’s fully healthy and ready to go, his fastball that touched 96 mph last season and a low-80s slider that had a 56% whiff rate should get plenty of outs once again.

Right-hander Christian Little had moments of excellence at Vanderbilt, but now pitching coach Wes Johnson will look to bring that out of him more consistently. His stuff certainly stacks up, including a fastball that averaged over 94 mph and touched 98 last season.

We are a long way away from baseball season in the spring, but there are plenty of reasons to be excited about baseball at The Box this year.

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How the series loss at Texas A&M affected Arkansas Baseball in the weekly polls

It’s clear that the national pollsters have many differing opinions when it comes to Arkansas Baseball.

Arkansas Baseball suffered just its’ second SEC-series loss of the season last weekend when the Razorbacks fell in two games on the road to a hot Texas A&M squad.

Just how crucial was the series loss? The pollsters have many differing opinions on that.

Out of the five major polls, Arkansas is placed in five different positions. Some polls had in mind that Texas A&M has played very well recently, while others punished Arkansas by losing a series on the road to an unranked program.

Here’s a look at the whirlwind that is the national polls for the week of April 25:

Where LSU baseball stands in the latest polls

LSU is falling in the polls after finishing at .500 last week.

Another week, another set of polls.

LSU finished last week 2-2 after winning against Tulane on Tuesday and taking the final game of the series against Texas A&M on Sunday. The Tigers went into last week ranked No. 8 in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, then proceeded to drop the weekend series to the unranked Aggies.

That dropped LSU all the way down to No. 18, and it dropped out of the Baseball America poll entirely.

Catcher Tyler McManus led the Tigers in hitting last week, batting .444 (4-for-9) with two homers, four RBI, and three runs scored. They have another busy week of games ahead this week as they get a shot at revenge on Louisiana Tech on Tuesday night before starting a weekend series in Gainesville against the No. 7 Florida Gators on Friday.

Here’s how all the latest polls shake out.

Baseball American drops Notre Dame one spot in latest rankings

The Irish are still ranked extremely high

Heading into this past weekend the Irish were ranked as the second best team in the country, behind Texas, according to Baseball America. Even though Link Jarrett’s team went undefeated, winning all three of their games in impressive fashion, they still fell a spot in the latest BA poll.

It wasn’t anything the Irish did, it was what Stanford did instead. The Cardinal went undefeated as well last week, running up a 4-0 record while allowing just one run and scoring 27 total runs. Their biggest win of the week was against Arkansas, an impressive 5-0 shutout against the now tenth ranked team in the country.

Even though the Irish fell, being the top rated team in the ACC is still nothing to scoff at. Notre Dame returns to the field this weekend as they face a trio of Big Ten teams in Minneapolis.

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LSU baseball rises as high as No. 3 in Baseball polls

The Tigers went 4-1 this past week, moving up in the polls in the process.

After playing a five-game stretch last week in which the Tigers went 4-1, LSU has climbed the college baseball rankings as high as the No. 3 spot.

This is fitting, because LSU’s No. 3 has a lot to do with why the Tigers had so much success during that stretch. LSU outfielder Dylan Crews batted .444 (8-for-18) with one triple, two homers, nine RBI, four runs scored, and a .565 on-base percentage in the last five games.

Crews is now hitting a team-high .483 on the year with one double, three triples, two homers, 13 RBI, and 12 runs. Along with the hot-hitting Crews, the Tigers definitely got their Money’s worth when Blake Money was on the mound. Money was brilliant on Friday night, as he defeated Towson with seven shutout innings, increasing his scoreless innings streak this season to 14 straight.

Money limited Towson to no runs on just two hits – a pair of singles – in seven innings with two walks and seven strikeouts. Money is 2-0 this season with a 0.00 ERA, a .085 opponent batting average, and three walks and 17 strikeouts in 14 innings.

The Tigers rank No. 3 in the Collegiate Baseball and Perfect Game rankings, and they sit in the top 10 of D1 Baseball, USA TODAY Sports and Baseball America’s polls, sitting at No. 7 in the former two and at No. 8 in the latter.

This week will be a very interesting week for LSU Baseball as the Tigers play against New Orleans this Wednesday before traveling to Minute Maid Park in Houston for the Shriners College Classic. LSU will play Oklahoma on Friday, No. 1 Texas on Saturday, and Baylor on Sunday.

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Notre Dame baseball almost atop the latest Baseball American poll

The Irish have made a good impression on Baseball America

The Irish didn’t complete the sweep during opening weekend, but it seems like Baseball America didn’t care much about the getaway day loss to Delaware. It was a game where Link Jarrett’s team just couldn’t finish the job, as the Blue Hens got the walk-off victory.

As noted above, Baseball America didn’t care, their latest poll was released today and the Irish are ranked as the second best team in the country.  Notre Dame ended up moving up two spots, just behind top rated Texas. It’s a bit surprising as the third ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys have the same record but defeated Vanderbilt in two of three games. The Commodores were the number two ranked team in the country last week.

Regardless of where the Irish are, having a ranking the high early in the season is a great sign, one that shows that they are among the top teams in the country.

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Quick primer ahead of Notre Dame baseball’s season opener Friday

It’s almost time to play ball for the Irish

The NCAA baseball season begins for the Irish this weekend and the expectations are sky high. After a run to the Super Regionals last year, Link Jarrett has establish the program as one of the best in the Midwest quickly. In his first full season, the Irish finished first in the ACC’s Atlantic division, racking up a 25-10 conference record, 34-13 overall. Obviously we all remember their run in the NCAA tournament, but the brilliance spanned the whole season. Gone is slugging first baseman Niko Kavadas, but the Irish are still viewed as one of the best teams in the country heading into the 2022 season. Here is a quick primer of what to expect from this seasons squad.

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A quick look ahead to the LSU Tigers 2022 baseball season

We aren’t far away from the beginning of baseball season.

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We are just a couple of weeks away from the start of what looks to be another exciting Baseball Season at “The Box”.

Not only is it the start of a new season, but also a start of a new regime at LSU. On June 25th, 2021, the Tigers hired Jay Johnson to be the new skipper for the Tigers baseball program. Coach Johnson coached at Arizona last year where he was the Pac-12 coach of the year. He led the Wildcats to the Pac-12 championship and eventually to the College World Series.

His Wildcats had the nation’s best offense in 2021. Oh yeah, did I mention he brought his best player with him? Jacob Berry was the hottest hitter for the No. 1 offense in the country, batting .352 with 17 homers and 70 RBIs. This is why he was placed on Baseball America’s Preseason All-American team for the 2022 season. He wasn’t the only Tiger on that list.

Berry was joined by Dylan Crews, Cade Doughty, and Tre’ Morgan. All four of these Sophomores are part of the reason why there is so much excitement around the program this year. Many truly believe this is a team that could win it all.

LSU begins the 2022 season ranked No. 10 on Baseball America’s Top 25. They will ease into the season with Maine, at Louisiana Tech, Southern, Towson, and New Orleans before things ramp up in the Shriners Hospital for Children College Classic where the Tigers will take on the likes of Oklahoma, No. 1 Texas, and Baylor at Minute Maid Park.