TUCSON, Ariz. – The Oregon State baseball team will open the 2017 season ranked fifth nationally according to Collegiate Baseball, which released its preseason top 40 rankings.
The Beavers
are the
highest ranked
team from the
Pac-12 Confer-
ence, garnering
485 points. TCU
is No. 1 with 496 points,
followed by LSU (494), Florida (491) and South Carolina (489).
Oregon State is slated to return seven of its nine position starters from last season, and two starting pitchers – Bryce Fehmel and Luke Heimlich – from the weekend rotation that shut out UCLA over the three-game series. It was the first time in school history the Beavers had shut out the same team three consecutive games.
Fehmel ended the season as just the third true freshman in program history to be named an All-American after the right-hander finished with 10 wins. He was named a preseason All-America Second Team selection Monday by Collegiate Baseball, while junior KJ Harrison was named to the third team. Oregon State is the only Pac-12 school with two preseason All-America selections.
Oregon State opens the season Feb. 17 in Surprise, Ariz., taking on Duke to open the Sanderson Ford College Baseball Classic.
TUCSON, Ariz.- Cal State Fullerton has been placed at No. 10 Collegiate Baseball newspaper's initial Fabulous 40 NCAA Division I preseason poll, the publication released on Tuesday. The ranking is the Titans' highest placing in the poll since being ranked No. 1 in the 2014 preseason poll.
Cal State Fullerton has now been ranked within the top 23 in all 19 preseason polls since Collegiate Baseball implemented its own preseason poll before the 1999 season. The Titans have been placed 10th or higher in eight of those 19 polls. Fullerton is the third highest ranked team on the west coast, only behind No. 5 Oregon State and 2016 CWS Runner-Up No. 7 Arizona.
In addition, Fullerton
leads a group of five
Big West squads
that have been
placed in the
preseason rankings
in No. 17 Long Beach
State, No. 18 UC Santa
Barbara, UC Irvine (RV) and Cal Poly (RV). The five preseason rankings from the Big West is coming on the heels of a magical 2016 campaign that saw three Big West teams qualify for the NCAA Tournament, which included a run to the College World Series by UC Santa Barbara.
For the Titans, it'll be a good mix of returners and newcomers that should make up a team worthy of its top-10 preseason ranking. Fullerton welcomes back four all-conference performers from a year ago in sophomore Colton Eastman (RHP), senior Timmy Richards (INF) , junior enters his sixth season as head coach
32
#5
Courtesy of osubeavers.com
OREGON ST
The Baseball Observer - Jan/ Feb 2017
#10
CAL-STATE
FULLERTON
Courtesy: fullertontitans.com