Mississippi State’s Baseball Bulldogs have nabbed their third preseason national ranking, tabbed at No. 20 in the preseason coaches poll conducted by Baseball Weekly/ESPN. The Bulldogs join five other Southeastern Conference teams in the poll: No. 6 LSU, No. 9 South Carolina, No. 18 Mississippi, No. 23 Florida and No. 25 Tennessee.
The 41-coach voting panel tabbed 2001 NCAA College World Series runner-up Stanford for the top position in the poll.
MSU has already been preseason ranked 23rd by Collegiate Baseball and 17th by Baseball America.
In the 11th annual preseason SEC baseball coaches poll, LSU and South Carolina were picked to win their respective divisional crowns and LSU the favorite to unseat Georgia as the Southeastern Conference champion in 2002.
The Tigers out-pointed Mississippi, Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn and Arkansas for top honors in the SEC West while South Carolina finished ahead of Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Vanderbilt and Kentucky
Mississippi State, with 23 lettermen and most of its starters back from last year’s 39-24 SEC Tournament championship edition, launches preseason practice February 4 at Dudy Noble Field. The Diamond ‘Dogs will open 2002 play February 22nd against the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the NBC Classic.