baseball-d1 flag

D1 baseball staff | January 26, 2021

2021 college baseball preseason All-America team

All you need to know about the 2021 college baseball season

The following article first appeared on D1Baseball.com. For more like it, you can use coupon code NCAA2021 to get a 20% discount for an annual subscription to DIBaseball.com or D1Softball.com.

The top five teams in the 2021 D1Baseball Preseason Top 25 rankings dominate D1Baseball’s Preseason All-America teams. No. 2 UCLA and No. 4 Vanderbilt are the only schools to produce multiple first-team Preseason All-Americans this year, as shortstop Matt McLain and ace Zach Pettway represent the Bruins, while rotationmates Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter represent the Commodores.

The Bruins also tied for the most All-Americans overall (three), with reliever Kyle Mora landing on the second team. The only other clubs with three Preseason All-Americans are No. 1 Florida (first-team outfielder Jud Fabian plus second-team pitchers Tommy Mace and Hunter Barco) and No. 5 Louisville (first-team catcher Henry Davis, second-team outfielder Levi Usher and second-team third baseman Alex Binelas).

TOP 25: Florida, UCLA, and Texas Tech headline the top 25

The following teams landed two players apiece on the All-America teams: Boston College, Miami, NC State and Virginia from the ACC; Arkansas, LSU, Tennessee and Vandy from the SEC; and Oklahoma from the Big 12.

The SEC leads all conferences with seven players on the first team and 16 All-Americans overall. The ACC is next in both categories with five members of the first team and 15 All-Americans overall. The Big 12 is next with five All-Americans overall, followed by the Pac-12 and Big Ten with four apiece. The American Athletic, Big East, Big West, Missouri Valley, Southern and Sun Belt each landed one player on the All-America teams.

D1Baseball’s editors and national writers select the preseason All-America teams with one guiding principle in mind: to identify the best and most valuable college baseball players for the 2021 season. Past performance and future potential factor into the deliberations, but the goal is neither to identify the best future major leaguers nor to reward the players who have put up the gaudiest numbers in past seasons (particularly since the level of competition varies significantly from one conference to another). The objective is to select the players who would provide the most value for a team that wanted to win the College World Series in 2021 — the players who are best equipped to perform against elite college competition this spring.

First Team Preseason All-Americans

(Scroll from left to right to view the full chart)

Pos. Name, School Year AVG/OBP/SLG OPS AB 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB
C Henry Davis, Louisville 3YR SO .372/.481/.698 1.179 43 5 0 3 13 8 4 1
1B Maxwell Costes, Maryland 3YR SO .432/.620/.750 1.370 44 2 0 4 15 16 7 3
2B Max Ferguson, Tennessee 3YR SO .333/.462/.524 .986 42 2 0 2 6 8 9 9
3B Cody Morissette, Boston College 3YR SO .448/.522/.655 1.177 58 6 0 2 11 9 6 3
SS Matt McLain, UCLA 3YR SO .397/.422/.621 1.043 58 4 0 3 19 4 13 1
OF Jud Fabian, Florida 3YR SO .294/.407/.603 1.010 68 6 0 5 13 13 18 2
OF Christian Franklin, Arkansas 3YR SO .381/.467/.619 1.086 63 4 1 3 11 10 14 3
OF Chris Newell, Virginia 2YR FR .407/.545/.729 1.274 59 5 1 4 20 13 21 8
DH Adrian Del Castillo, Miami 3YR SO .358/.478/.547 1.025 53 2 1 2 15 11 8 1
UT Davis Sharpe, Clemson 3YR SO .311/.436/.622 1.058 45 2 0 4 10 8 14 1
Pos. Name Year W L ERA G SV IP BB SO OBA
SP Jack Leiter, Vanderbilt 2YR FR 2 0 1.72 4 0 15.2 8 22 .098
SP Ty Madden, Texas 3YR SO 3 0 1.80 4 0 25 4 26 .196
SP Zach Pettway, UCLA 4YR JR 3 0 1.05 4 0 25.2 1 29 .141
SP Connor Prielipp, Alabama 2YR FR 3 0 0.00 4 0 21 6 35 .077
SP Kumar Rocker, Vanderbilt 3YR SO 2 1 1.80 3 0 15 8 28 .118
RP Devin Fontenot, LSU 4YR JR 1 0 0.90 7 4 10 4 17 .143
RP Jason Ruffcorn, Oklahoma 5YR SR 1 0 0.00 7 5 8 1 12 .115
UT Davis Sharpe, Clemson 3YR SO 1 1 3.93 4 0 18.1 4 20 .270

Here are the top SEC storylines to know as we lean into conference play

Conference play just started, and D1Baseball's Kendall Rogers takes us through the top storylines in the SEC so far this season.
READ MORE

Olivia Pichardo becomes first woman to play in DI baseball game

Watch Pichardo, a freshman at Brown, make college baseball history with her first at-bat on Friday.
READ MORE

Jacksonville State knocks off No. 3 Ole Miss

Jax State plated six runs in the third inning, struck out 14 and expanded the lead in the late innings to knock off third-ranked Ole Miss, 10-6, on Tuesday night on Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium.
READ MORE
Division I
Baseball Championship
June 16 - 26, 2023
Charles Schwab Field Omaha | Omaha, NE

Subscribe To Email Updates

Enter your information to receive emails about offers, promotions from NCAA.com and our partners