D1Baseball released their top 25 rankings ahead of the 2020 college baseball season. The SEC found themselves with nine teams ranked in the preseason.
Vanderbilt comes in at No.2 in the rankings as the defending National Champions. The Commodores are bringing in the nation’s top recruiting class according to baseballamerica.com. They find themselves behind the top-ranked team in Louisville. The Cardinals earned the No.1 spot in the preseason rankings for the first time in program history.
Vanderbilt is one of four SEC teams from last year’s College World Series that return to the top 25 rankings in 2020. Arkansas, Auburn and Mississippi State bring back strong teams and find themselves in the top 10. Arkansas and Mississippi State both hosted regionals a year ago.
Florida is expected to be a major factor after a down year in 2019. The Gators were able to squeeze into the NCAA Tournament as a three seed but were unable to make it out of the Lubbock Regional. They’ll be relying on several high-profile underclassmen who will need to establish themselves for this team to live up to their expectations.
Georgia will once again be stacked on the pitching side. The Bulldogs throw a pair of potential top-10 overall picks with righties Emerson Hancock and Cole Wilcox, who repeatedly hit triple digits last year. Georgia was unable to win their own regional last year and are hoping for better results for 2020.
Emerson Hancock is projected to go as high as the third overall pick to the Miami Marlins. (Photo by georgiadogs.com).
LSU came up just short of Omaha as they lost to Florida State in the Super Regional round. They’ll be replacing their top three hitters in Josh Smith, Antoine Duplantis and Zach Watson from a team that ranked sixth in the SEC in batting in 2019.
Texas A&M fell short in the Morgantown Regional in 2019 but bring back a solid pitching staff. Asa Lacy will headline the rotation as arguably one of the best left-handed pitchers in baseball. The lineup is anchored by junior third baseman Bryce Blaum who returns with the best batting average and most home runs from last year’s club.
Ole Miss just sneaked in as the No.25 ranked team. The Rebels came up just short of the College World Series a year ago. Ole Miss brings in the No.2 ranked recruiting class and will be relying on strong performances from the underclassmen to make it back to a Super Regional.
All in all the SEC has three teams ranked in the top five, six teams ranked in the top ten, and seven teams ranked in the top 11. It sets up what is sure to be another exciting year for the league.
You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers along with Kyle!
“From Our Haus to Yours”
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.
