See where Texas Tech baseball ranks in USA TODAY Sports preseason top 25
The Texas Tech baseball team is No. 22 in the USA TODAY Sports Top 25 preseason poll released Tuesday.
The Red Raiders finished last season 41-23 and 12-12 in the Big 12. They lost in the championship round of the NCAA Gainesville Regional to host Florida, which reached the finals of the College World Series.
Tech has returned five position players who started at least 50 games last season: outfielders Austin Green and Gage Harrelson, catcher Kevin Bazzell, first baseman Gavin Kash and middle infielder Tracer Lopez. Green and Bazzell both are making position switches, Green having started last year at second base and Bazzell at third base.
Wake Forest is the preseason No. 1, followed by LSU, Florida, Arkansas and TCU. Rounding out the top 10 are Vanderbilt, Oregon State, Tennessee, Clemson and Texas A&M.
The only other Big 12 team in the top 25 is Texas at No. 13. The Red Raiders host the Longhorns from March 8-10 in their opening Big 12 series.
Tech starts the season next week in the Shriners Children's College Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington. The Red Raiders play No. 8 Tennessee at 7 p.m. Feb. 16, Nebraska at 3 p.m. Feb. 17 and Oregon at 2:30 p.m. Feb. 18. Tech then remains in Arlington to face Texas-Arlington at 6 p.m. Feb. 20 and No. 7 Oregon State at noon Feb. 21.
Tech also hosts No. 23 Stanford in a two-game series April 1-2.
More: Tim Tadlock calls an 8-year low forecast for Texas Tech baseball 'fuel for the fire'
More: Change in store for Texas Tech baseball players Kevin Bazzell, Austin Green
USA TODAY SPORTS
PRESEASON TOP 25 POLL
The USA TODAY Sports Top 25 preseason baseball poll, with teams' records from last year in parentheses, total points based on 25 for first place through one point for 25th, ranking in last year’s final poll and first-place votes received.
Rank School (record) Points Last year’s final rank First-place votes
1 Wake Forest (54-12) 751 3 15
2 LSU (53-17) 731 1 11
3 Florida (54-16) 727 2 5
4 Arkansas (43-18) 672 11 0
5 TCU (44-24) 643 7 0
6 Vanderbilt (42-20) 576 15 0
7 Oregon State (41-20) 543 25 0
8 Tennessee (44-22) 529 4 0
9 Clemson (44-19) 484 18 0
10 Texas A&M (38-27) 468 NR 0
11 Virginia (50-15) 431 6 0
12 East Carolina (47-19) 391 23 0
13 Texas (42-22) 381 12 0
14 Duke (39-24) 351 16 0
15 North Carolina (36-24) 342 NR 0
16 North Carolina State (36-21) 289 NR 0
17 Alabama (43-21) 197 17 0
18 UC Santa Barbara (35-20) 187 NR 0
18 Coastal Carolina (42-21) 187 20 0
20 Iowa (44-16) 186 NR 0
21 South Carolina (42-21) 169 10 0
22 Texas Tech (41-23) 157 NR 0
23 Stanford (44-20) 121 5 0
24 UCLA (28-24-1) 80 NR 0
25 Northeastern (44-16) 71 NR 0
Dropped out: No. 8 Oral Roberts (52-14); No. 9 Southern Mississippi (46-20); No. 13 Kentucky (40-21); No. 14 Indiana State (45-17); No. 19 Oregon (41-22); No. 21 Miami (Fla.) (42-21); No. 22 Campbell (46-15); No. 24 Dallas Baptist (47-16).
Others receiving votes: Kansas State (35-24) 65; UC Irvine (38-17) 51; Oregon (41-22) 42; Oklahoma State (41-20) 41; Auburn (34-23) 35; Dallas Baptist (47-16) 21; Southern Mississippi (46-20) 21; Troy (40-22) 19; Mississippi (25-29) 16; Florida State (23-31) 13; UNC-Wilmington (34-23) 12; Arizona (33-26) 10; Oral Roberts (52-14) 9; Indiana State (45-17) 8; Connecticut (44-17) 7; Campbell (46-15) 6; Georgia (29-27) 6; Southern California (34-23-1) 6; Kentucky (40-21) 5; Georgia Tech (30-27) 4; Indiana (43-20) 4; West Virginia (40-20) 4; Hawaii (29-20) 3; Maryland (42-21) 3.
The USA TODAY Sports board of coaches is made up of 31 coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the American Baseball Coaches Association. The board for the 2024 season: John Anderson, Minnesota; Tod Brown, New Mexico; Mitch Canham, Oregon State; Andrew Checketts, UC-Santa Barbara; Jim Chester, Gardner-Webb; Reggie Christiansen, Sacramento State; Barry Davis, Rider; Jeff Forehand, Lipscomb; Craig Gibson, Mercer; Danny Hall, Georgia Tech; Fritz Hamburg, Saint Joseph's; Brian Hamm, Yale; Charlie Hickey, Central Connecticut State; Josh Holliday, Oklahoma State; Randy Hood, UNC-Wilmington; Scott Jackson, Liberty; Omar Johnson, Jackson State; Ed Kahovec, Holy Cross; Ryan Klosterman, Bryant; Geoff Loomis, Portland; Sean Lyons, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville; Scott Malone, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi; John McCormack, Florida Atlantic; Jim Penders, Connecticut; Evan Porter, Nebraska-Omaha; Tommy Raffo, Arkansas State; Sherman Reed, Coppin State; Jack Sabol, Central Michigan; Brian Schmack, Valparaiso; Alex Sogard, Wright State; Butch Thompson, Auburn.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: See where Texas Tech baseball ranks in USA TODAY Sports preseason top 25
