TCU earns nod as preseason No. 1

Six months after grabbing 54 victories and a third-place finish in the College World Series, Texas Christian starts the 2011 campaign as the preseason No. 1 team in the nation according to Collegiate Baseball. 

The top billing is the first in program history for the Horned Frogs, who return their complete starting rotation from last spring. TCU has seven starters back in the field, including preseason All-American Jason Coats, a junior outfielder. Coats was joined on the preseason All-America teams by pitchers Matt Purke, Steven Maxwell and Kyle Winkler.  

TCU earned 495 points in the preseason poll, which was decided by just 21 points between the top 10 teams. Florida is second, just one point behind the Horned Frogs while UCLA was another point back in third. Clemson and Vanderbilt rounded out the top five.

Three Big 12 teams take up the Nos. 6-8 slots with Oklahoma leading the way followed by Texas and Texas A&M. The Pac-10 also has three teams in the top 10 with No. 9 Oregon and No. 10 Stanford joining UCLA.

Defending national champion South Carolina, which defeated the Bruins in the final game in Omaha’s Rosenblatt Stadium in June, was ranked 14th, the lowest ranking of last season’s CWS participants. Arizona State (11th) and Florida State (13th) were just ahead of the Gamecocks.    

Collegiate Baseball Preseason Poll