CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Oregon State baseball team will open the 2016 ranked fifth according to D1Baseball.com, which released its preseason top 25 on Tuesday.
The Beavers are the highest ranked of five teams from the Pac-12 Conference; all five are in the top 14. OSU trails only No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Louisville, No. 3 Vanderbilt and No. 4 Texas A&M.
The ranking is the second in the preseason top 25 for Oregon State, which found itself at No. 8 according to Collegiate Baseball in December.
Oregon State is coming off a 39-18-1 season, taking second in the Pac-12 with a 19-10-1 mark despite being projected to finish fifth by the conference’s coaches before the season.