Tennessee Baseball received its fifth top five preseason ranking on Tuesday when the National College Baseball Writers of America Preseason Top 35 Poll slotted the Vols at No. 2.
deuce @NCBWA pic.twitter.com/0wzLshubNB
— Tennessee Baseball (@Vol_Baseball) January 31, 2023
LSU tops NCBWA’s poll at No. 1. Florida, Texas A&M, Arkansas and Ole Miss rank 4-7, and Vanderbilt comes in at No. 9 to give the SEC a whopping seven teams in the Top 10. Alabama is the next SEC team at No. 25, while Auburn, South Carolina and Mississippi State also found their way into the Top 35 at No. 27, 28 and 31 respectively.
Of the five preseason polls released so far, the Vols are No. 2 in four of them and No. 5 in the other. LSU holds the top spot across all polls.
Below is Tennessee’s rankings in the five preseason polls that have been released.
D1 Baseball: No. 2
Perfect Game USA: No. 2
Collegiate Baseball Newspaper: No. 5
NCBWA: No. 2
Baseball America: No. 2
The USA Today Coaches Poll has yet to release its Top 25 Preseason Poll.
Tennessee will enter the 2023 season boasting the No. 2 transfer class in the nation with players such as Kansas SS transfer Maui Ahuna, Cincinnati OF transfer Griffin Merritt, and Alabama 3B transfer Zane Denton. The Vols are also returning their entire starting rotiation from 2022 in Chase Dollander, Drew Beam and Chase Burns. Dollander and Burns have been named to four Preseason All-America teams.
Tennessee Baseball will open their 2023 season at the Desert Invitational in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Feb. 7 against Arizona, Grand Canyon, and UC-San Diego in the three-day tournament.
