Baseball America, one of the premier college baseball publications in the sport, announced its preseason Top 25 rankings on Monday morning.
Tennessee Baseball and head coach Tony Vitello land at No. 2 in the Top 25 preseason rankings.
D1 Baseball also announced Top 25 preseason rankings last week with Tennessee coming in at No. 2 in their list as well. The LSU Tigers boast the No. 1 spot in the country in both polls.
Tennessee will enter the 2023 season as the defending SEC regular season and SEC Tournament champions after an impressive run in 2022. The Vols won 57 regular season games and 25 SEC games – a program best for the Volunteers.
The Vols finished the 2022 season 6th in hits (704), 1st in home runs (158), 1st in runs (613), 4th in scoring (9.3/game), and 1st in strikeout-to-walk ratio from the pitching staff (4.24 K/BB).
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The Southeastern Conference is stacked with impressive talent across the board. There are eight SEC teams on Baseball America’s Top 25:
- No. 1 LSU
- No. 2 Tennessee
- No. 3 Florida
- No. 6 Vanderbilt
- No. 7 Texas A&M
- No. 10 Ole Miss
- No. 11 Arkansas
- No. 22 Auburn
The D1 Baseball Top 25 had nine SEC teams, with a fairly different order aside from the top two:
- No. 1 LSU
- No. 2 Tennessee
- No. 4 Ole Miss
- No. 5 Texas A&M
- No. 7 Florida
- No. 8 Arkansas
- No. 10 Vanderbilt
- No. 20 Alabama
- No. 23 South Carolina
Tennessee will enter the 2023 season boasting the No. 2 transfer class in the nation with players such as SS Maui Ahuna, OF Griffin Merritt, and 3B Zane Denton. The Vols also have returning superstars such as Chase Dollander, Chase Burns, Drew Beam, Blake Burke, Christian Moore, and Jared Dickey – to name a few.
The Tennessee baseball team will open the 2023 season at the Desert Invitational in Arizona on Feb. 7 as the Vols take on Arizona, Grand Canyon, and UC-San Diego in the three-day tournament.
🚨 PRESEASON COLLEGE TOP 25🚨
Are you ready for the college season?
We are.https://t.co/vtLpz2EdM8 pic.twitter.com/GJODin6ANS
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) January 23, 2023
