Aggie Baseball Debuts in Preseason Polls

After finishing the 2013 season with a 34-29 record and losing out in the Corvallis regional, Texas A&M Baseball will begin the 2014 season ranked in 2 of the college baseball polls. Both the Baseball America and Perfect Game Top 25 rankings were released on Tuesday; the Aggies check in at #19 in the Perfect Game rankings and #24 according to Baseball America. The USA Today Coaches and NCBWA polls have not yet been released.

Here are the teams that A&M will face this year that are ranked in at least 1 of these 2 polls:

As you can see, 6 of the teams that the Aggies will face in a weekend series are ranked in at least one of these preseason polls. A&M heads to Houston to play Rice on a Tuesday in April. Kentucky comes to Olsen Field in April, and they are a team that could play their way into the rankings by that time as well.

In contrast to the past, the nonconference schedule for Aggie Baseball this year (click here for the full schedule) is nothing to write home about. A&M will play a series against Fresno State in California and a midweek game against UT-Arlington at the Ballpark in Arlington. The rest of the nonconference slate will be at Olsen Field and is composed mostly of teams that the Aggies will be expected to beat. That is most certainly by design, as the difficult SEC slate that the Aggies will have to deal with features plenty of opportunities to build a strong tournament resume.

The Aggies have 12 returning players who are upperclassmen in 2014 - 5 seniors and 7 juniors - and are led by Preseason All-American Cole Lankford and likely Friday night starting pitcher Daniel Mengden. Leading up to Opening Day, we'll have detailed Aggie Baseball previews to catch you up on departures from the team, new arrivals, another look at the schedule, and an overall breakdown of the 2014 season. Be sure to check back here for all of that and more; we're just 17 days away from first pitch!

Oh, and if you haven't seen or heard, there is a sweet new scoreboard gracing the outfield at Olsen Field. Good news - we appear to already be beating Florida!

In a word, the new scoreboard at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park is MAGNIFICENT! @Aggie_Baseball pic.twitter.com/JpcZNfGtdd

— Rusty Burson (@12thManRusty) January 25, 2014

Complete USA Today Top 25 Poll