Baseball No. 6 in Preseason Poll

Collegiate Baseball top 40 preseason poll | PDF

OU in the preseason top 10

According to archives for the four major collegiate baseball polls that date back to 1981, OU earned its fourth preseason top 10 ranking on Monday. Below is a look at the other Sooner squads that started a season in the top 10.

1995: 42-16 (21-7, first in Big Eight)
Coming off the 1994 National Championship, the program's second title, OU begins the 1995 campaign at No. 3 according to Baseball America. It marks the best ranking for a Sooner squad prior to a season. The 1995 Sooners made the program's ninth College World Series appearance with 42 wins and a Big Eight Championship. It also marked the first back-to-back appearances in Omaha since the 1975 and 1976 campaigns.

1986: 44-21 (19-3, first in Big Eight)
The Sooners enter 1986 ranked No. 8 in the preseason (Baseball America) after rattling off 55 wins, the second most in program history, the year before. OU wins 44 games in 1986 and win the program's 22nd conference championship with a 19-3 mark in the regular season.

1985: 55-14 (18-6, second in Big Eight)
In 1985, Oklahoma began the year at No. 4 (Baseball America) after returning to the NCAA postseason a year earlier. The 1984 postseason started a string of six straight NCAA appearances for OU which concluded with legendary coach Enos Semore's final season in 1989. The 1985 campaign saw OU win the second most games in program history.

Dec. 20, 2010

NORMAN, Okla. --The University of Oklahoma baseball team came in at No. 6 in Collegiate Baseball's top 40 preseason poll on Monday.

The preseason ranking is the highest for OU since 1995 when it was coming off the program's second National Championship and entered the season at No. 3 according to Baseball America.

“We are excited about getting started,” said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway. “The last game in Omaha, the 12-inning game, is still our most recent memory on the competitive field. We are looking forward to getting started on a new journey. And although we appreciate the national recognition for our program, we clearly understand that it is not where we start the season, but where we finish.”

The Sooners are coming off the program's 10th appearance in the College World Series with a 50-18 overall record and second place finish in the Big 12 Conference. OU's 2010 season ended after it lost a 12-inning game to a South Carolina team that went on to win the National Championship.

OU returns all but one position starter and three hurlers from the 2010 squad that won the first NCAA Super Regional at then-No. 1 Virginia in school history.

The Sooners were one of five Big 12 schools to appear in the preseason poll with No. 7 Texas, No. 8 Texas A&M, No. 37 Kansas State and No. 39 Baylor.

The No. 6 ranking marks the third straight season that the Sooners appeared in a preseason listing.

Besides 1995, OU was previously ranked in the preseason top 10 in 1986 (No. 8) and 1985 (No. 4). The archives for the four major polls (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, USA Today Coaches' poll and the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association) only date back to 1981.

The Sooners open the 2011 campaign on Feb. 18 against William & Mary in Norman. The four-game series with the Tribe is part of a nine-game home stand for Oklahoma to being the season.

Overall, OU will face nine of the teams ranked in the preseason poll for a combined 20 games, including non-conference foes TCU (No. 1), Arizona State (No. 11), San Diego (No. 28), Arkansas (No. 32) and Cal (No. 33).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

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