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University of Oklahoma Athletics
Baseball America Names Sooners Preseason No. 5
January 27, 2011 | Baseball
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Jan. 27, 2011
NORMAN, Okla. ---- The University of Oklahoma baseball team was tabbed No. 5 in Baseball America's preseason top 25 poll on Thursday. Oklahoma was also ranked No. 6 in the preseason by Collegiate Baseball back in December.
The Sooners have been ranked in the top 10 by Baseball America, at some point in the season, in each of the last three years. Only the 1984-1987 Sooners can claim a better streak among the nation's top 10 in program history.
Thursday's preseason ranking is the highest for OU since 1995 when it was coming off the program's second National Championship and entered the season as Baseball America's No. 3 team in the nation.
"The consistency over a three-year period is rewarding in that we know we are doing things right," said OU Head Coach Sunny Golloway. "Sometimes you wonder if the things you are doing, day in and day out, are the right ways to approach the game. And maintaining a top 10 program, hosting regionals and going to Omaha reassures that and is the reward. All of those things show how hard the coaches and players have worked along a tough road.
"With that said, you can always do better and that is our challenge as we maintain that consistency. The challenge is maintaining that high level and that is also one of the most fun things about coaching. I said it back in December and it will get repeated throughout the season, `it's not where you start that matters, it's where you finish.'"
Florida earned the top spot while the remainder of the top five featured UCLA, TCU, Vanderbilt and Oklahoma. No. 6 Texas followed the Sooners as did No. 7 South Carolina, No. 8 Cal State Fullerton, No. 9 Connecticut and No. 10 Clemson.
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. The Sooners were nation's No. 5 consensus team in the final rankings.
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.
Baseball America had this to say about Oklahoma:
"The Sooners welcome back seven starters from last year's Omaha team. The versatile offense applies constant pressure with its aggressiveness at the plate, its ability to hit-and-run, sacrifice, use the gaps and bunt. The Sooners have a nice balance of lefties and righties, scrappy athletes (Ellison, Bushyhead, Ross) and physical mashers (Buechele, Seitzer, White, Reine, Ogle)."
The Sooners and Longhorns were two of the four Big 12 programs to appear in the top 25 poll. Baylor came in at No. 16, followed by Texas A&M at No. 21.
Overall, OU will face six of the teams ranked in the preseason poll for a combined 14 games, including non-conference foes TCU (No. 3), Arizona State (No. 11) and Cal (No. 33).
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.
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