Baseball Ranks Third In Preseason Collegiate Baseball Poll
Dec 19, 2001 | Baseball
Dec. 19, 2001
NEW ORLEANS, La. - The Tulane University baseball team claimed the No. 3 spot in the Collegiate Baseball Magazine preseason poll today, the highest preseason ranking in the 109-year history of the Green Wave program.
The Green Wave received 491 points in the preseason vote, just six points behind No. 1 Stanford and four shy of second-ranked Florida State. The preseason ranking comes on the heels of Tulane's record-breaking 2001 season when the Green Wave led the NCAA with 56 wins and advanced to the College World Series for the first time in school history.
"Even though it's the preseason, I think the ranking speaks to the potential of this club," head coach Rick Jones said. "Like any year, you've got to have so many things fall in place for you and you've got to have a lot of guys have good years. I'm happy for the ranking, but we all realize that we've yet to play a game this season."
Tulane returns a wealth of talent for the 2002 season with 20 lettermen, six positional starters and seven of the top eight pitchers from last year's squad. Headlining the list are 2001 National Freshman of the Year Michael Aubrey, three-time first-team All-Conference USA honoree and 1999 National Freshman of the Year James Jurries, and senior southpaw Beau Richardson, who became the team's ace in the latter portion of the 2001 season. Also highlighting the list of returning players are 2001 Freshman All-American second-baseman Anthony Giarratano and New Orleans Regional Most Outstanding Player Joey Charron.
Rounding out the Collegiate Baseball preseason Top 5 are Southern California at No. 4 and LSU at No. 5. Tulane is one of three schools from Louisiana to receive a spot in the preseason poll, being joined by the Tigers and Louisiana-Lafayette, who claimed the No. 34 spot. The Green Wave are also joined by fellow Conference USA foe East Carolina, which ranks 29th. Last season, Tulane finished the year ranked sixth in the Collegiate Baseball final poll. The Green Wave was also ranked fifth by Baseball America and The Sporting News, and sixth by Baseball Weekly.
The Green Wave begins the 2002 season on Friday, Feb. 8 when they travel to Malibu, Calif., for a three-game series with Pepperdine. Tulane opens its home schedule on Friday, Feb. 15 against Villanova at 7 p.m. at Turchin Stadium. For ticket information, call the Tulane ticket office at (504) 861-WAVE.
Collegiate Baseball Preseason Poll
Ranking School (Final 2001 Record) Points Final 2001 Ranking 1. Stanford (51-17) 497 2 2. Florida State (47-19) 495 9 3. TULANE (56-13) 491 6 4. Southern California (45-19) 489 5 5. LSU (44-22-1) 486 10 6. Clemson (41-22) 484 13 7. Miami (53-12) 480 1 8. South Carolina (49-20) 477 15 9. Wichita State (42-24) 475 NR 10. Oklahoma State (42-22) 472 NR 11. Fresno State (41-25) 468 NR 12. Rice (47-20) 466 16 13. Nebraska (50-16) 462 7 14. Mississippi (39-23-1) 459 NR 15. Texas (36-26) 458 28 16. Wake Forest (44-18) 456 18 17. Cal State Fullerton (48-18) 456 3 18. Baylor (37-24) 451 22 19. Notre Dame (49-13-1) 447 12 20. Arizona State (37-20-1) 445 23 21. Florida (35-27) 442 NR 22. Georgia Tech (41-20) 441 27 23. Mississippi State (39-24) 437 14 24. Ohio State (43-18) 433 NR 25. Rutgers (42-17) 430 25 26. Texas Tech (43-20-1) 425 21 27. Purdue (32-24) 423 NR 28. Ball State (34-23) 420 NR 29. East Carolina (47-13) 416 11 30. Texas A&M (33-27) 413 NR 31. Oral Roberts (48-13) 409 NR 32. Georgia Southern (42-20) 407 NR 33. Cal State Northridge (34-22) 403 NR 34. Louisiana-Lafayette (28-28) 399 NR 35. Nevada-Reno (30-26) 395 NR 36. Winthrop (48-16) 394 29 37. Long Beach State (35-23) 390 NR 38. California (34-25) 387 NR 39. Stetson (43-17) 383 NR 40. Central Florida (51-14) 382 17
