The Virginia baseball team was
voted second in the Atlantic
Coast Conference’s Coastal
Division in the 2016 ACC Preseason Coaches Poll, released by the conference office and #9 in the nation by Collegiate Baseball News.
Miami was picked to win the ACC Coastal Division, totaling 97 points. Virginia was second with 80 points, followed by North Carolina (71), Georgia Tech (58), Duke (38), Virginia Tech (30) and Pitt (18).
Louisville was a unanimous selection as the team to beat in both the Atlantic Division and in the conference. Florida State was picked second in the division with 74 points, followed by NC State (72), Notre Dame (50), Clemson (46), Wake Forest (35) and Boston College (17).
Coming off the program’s first NCAA championship in 2015, Virginia returns 17 letterwinners and welcomes 17 newcomers this season. Virginia boasts a pair of preseason All-Americans in starting pitcher Connor Jones and catcher Matt Thaiss.
All-ACC shortstop Daniel Pinero and 2015 Freshman All-Americans Pavin Smith and Adam Haseley also are back for Virginia, which returns seven of its nine starting positions players from its national championship squad.
Led by 13th-year head coach Brian
O'Connor, Virginia owns
the most wins in Division I
baseball over the last
seven seasons with 342
and also has won 40 NCAA
tournament games in that
span (second most
nationally). UVA has led the country by winning six regional cham- pionships and making four trips to the College World Series since 2009.
The UCLA Bruins have been ranked number 10 in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s Fabulous 40 Pre-Season Poll, it was announced today. This marks the fourth time in the past six seasons that UCLA has been ranked inside the top-10 to begin the season.
In 2016, the Bruins will face a total of eight teams who are ranked in the top-40 including Oregon State who comes in at number eight. The remaining seven ranked teams UCLA will play are Mississippi State (11), Cal State Fullerton (12), California (13), Oregon (14), North Carolina (22), Pepperdine (30) and Texas (40).
The Bruins are one of four Pac-12 schools ranked in the preseason poll and come in second-highest among conference teams behind Oregon State.
The Bruins coaching staff welcomed the nation’s No. 3 ranked recruiting class (as ranked by Baseball America) to Westwood this fall and will look for those players to make an immediate impact in 2016. The freshman class features five pitchers, one first baseman, two infielders and two outfielders.
UCLA also returns a strong group of veterans this season, including six position player starters from last year’s team. The Bruins are coming off one of their best seasons in program history, recording a school-record 22 conference wins en route to the Pac-12 Championship and the number one overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
The Baseball Observer - Jan/ Feb 2016
20
NCAA DI TEAMS TO WATCH
#9
VIRGINIA
From virginiasports.com.com
#10
By: UCLA Athletics