New college baseball team surges to No. 1 in latest Top 25 polls
There’s a new No. 1 team in the nation in two of the major Top 25 college baseball polls, released Monday, May 6.
Tennessee (39-9 overall) moved into the top spot in the new D1Baseball and Baseball America Top 25 rankings after spending the past three weeks at No. 3.
Texas A&M (40-8), which had spent three weeks at No. 1, dropped two of three at LSU over the weekend in Baton Rouge. Previously second-ranked Arkansas (40-9) also dropped two of three in a Top 10 matchup against Kentucky in Lexington.
That allowed the Volunteers to move up to No. 1 for the first time all season after taking two of three from Florida in Gainesville.
Where does Clemson rank amid all the changes at the top? It depends on the rankings. The Tigers (36-10 overall) moved up two spots to land at No. 2 in D1Baseball’s poll but stayed at No. 4 in Baseball America’s rankings.
Texas A&M fell to No. 3 in D1Baseball’s poll, but the Aggies fell only one spot to land at No. 2 and finish ahead of Clemson in Baseball America’s new rankings. Arkansas also finished ahead of the Tigers for third in Baseball America’s Top 25, while the Razorbacks dropped from second to fifth in D1Baseball’s poll.
Kentucky (35-10) moved to No. 4 in D1Baseball’s poll after its big series win against Arkansas. The Wildcats were ranked sixth by Baseball America.
Florida State (35-10) rounded out Baseball America’s top five while D1Baseball ranked the Seminoles further down at No. 8. FSU played only two games this past week, splitting a pair of contests with NC State due to rain and poor field conditions in Tallahassee.
For Clemson, it’s the second straight week that coach Erik Bakich’s club has been on the rise in D1Baseball’s poll. The Tigers had moved up to No. 4 in the rankings last week.
Aside from Clemson and Florida State, the ACC had five other schools place in the Top 25 in Duke, Virginia, North Carolina, Wake Forest and NC State.
Baseball America ranked North Carolina the highest of those five teams at No. 7, while D1Baseball gave Duke the higher ranking at No. 9.
The ACC tied with the SEC for the most schools ranked of any conference with seven apiece. All told, the SEC took four of the first five spots in D1Baseball’s poll while the ACC took six of the first 12 spots.
Clemson travels to Truist Field to face the Charlotte 49ers in midweek action Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. EDT.
