Dec. 22, 2014
COLUMBIA, S.C. –
South Carolina is ranked No. 21 in the nation in the Collegiate Baseball Preseason Top 40 as announced on Monday morning. The Gamecocks begin the 2015 season on Friday, Feb. 13 hosting No. 25 College of Charleston at Carolina Stadium.
South Carolina is one of seven SEC schools to be ranked in the preseason poll. Also ranked is Vanderbilt (No. 1), LSU (No. 4), Florida (No. 6) Mississippi State (No. 20), Tennessee (No. 33) and Arkansas (No. 36).
The Gamecocks return six position starters, 11 pitchers and 25 letterwinners from last year’s Regional team. Carolina also features a solid group of newcomers that were ranked the No. 5 recruiting class in the nation earlier this fall by Baseball America.
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South Carolina won the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship in 2010 and 2011 at the College World Series. South Carolina has 11 College World Series appearances, including six in the last 13 years. The Gamecocks own the second-highest win total in the nation in the last 15 years (2000 to the present) with a 713-289 record. South Carolina is one of five schools to appear in the NCAA Regional every season in the last 15 years, including 11 NCAA Super Regional appearances in that span, one of only two schools to accomplish the feat.
COLLEGIATE BASEBALL'S PRESEASON TOP 40 Rank Team (2014 Record) Points 1. Vanderbilt (51-21) 494 2. Texas Christian (48-18) 492 3. Virginia (53-16) 489 4. Louisiana St. (46-16-1) 487 5. Oklahoma St. (48-18) 485 6. Florida (40-23) 483 7. Texas (46-21) 480 8. Houston (48-18) 479 9. Texas Tech. (45-21) 477 10. UCLA (25-30-1) 473 11. Florida St. (43-17) 469 12. Louisville (50-17) 468 13. Cal. Poly (47-12) 467 14. Miami, Fla. (44-19) 465 15. Oregon (44-20) 462 16. U.C. Santa Barbara (34-17-1) 460 17. Cal. St. Fullerton (34-24) 458 18. Stanford (35-26) 457 19. Arizona St. (33-24) 454 20. Mississippi St. (39-24) 452 21. South Carolina (44-18) 449 22. Rice (42-20) 446 23. Liberty (41-18) 445 24. North Carolina (35-27) 443 25. College of Charleston (44-19) 440 26. Georgia Tech. (37-27) 438 27. Kennesaw St. (40-24) 436 28. Clemson (36-25) 432 29. St. John's (35-20) 430 30. Kent St. (36-23) 427 31. Ball St. (39-18) 425 32. Wichita St. (31-28) 424 33. Tennessee (31-23) 421 34. San Diego (34-20) 419 35. Loyola Marymount (32-24)417 36. Arkansas (40-25) 414 37. Maryland (40-23) 412 38. Nebraska (41-21) 411 39. U.C. Irvine (41-25) 409 40. Illinois (32-21) 405