Gators picked as No. 2 team in the country by Collegiate Baseball Poll
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida Gators will start the season ranked No. 2 in the country according to the Collegiate Baseball Poll. This represents the 15th-consecutive season appearing in Collegiate Baseball’s preseason rankings and the 11th time inside the top 10 during that span. That includes breaking the top six nationally in eight of the last nine sets of preseason rankings.
Florida returns 23 players including six positional starters from the 2022 campaign after going 42-24 (15-15 SEC) and hosting the program’s 18th NCAA Regional. A talented group of 13 newcomers join that constituency, featuring eight freshmen and five transfers.
Leading the way are Preseason First Team All-Americans, outfielder Wyatt Langford and RHP Hurston Waldrep. As one of two Gators to start all 66 games last year, Langford slashed .355/.447/.867 while adding three triples, nine doubles, 73 runs, 63 RBI and seven steals to his resume.
Waldrep is a transfer from Southern Miss. The right-hander was a teammate of Langford last summer as both played for the USA Collegiate National Team. Waldrep is regarded as one of the top arms in the nation, Waldrep was named a 2022 Third Team All-American by D1Baseball after churning out 90 frames of 3.20 ERA ball with 140 strikeouts – translating to 14.0 strikeouts per nine innings. The Thomasville, Ga. native was equally brilliant in limited action as a freshman in 2021, working to a 3.35 ERA and .217 batting average against with 16 strikeouts in 16 1/3 innings of work.
The Southeastern Conference led all leagues with six teams in the top 10 and 12 teams in the top 50.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
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- 2
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- 3New
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- 4
Bryce Underwood
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- 5Trending
Dan Lanning
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Eight of those programs broke the top 25: LSU (No. 1), Florida (No. 2) Texas A&M (No. 4), Tennessee (No. 5), Arkansas (No. 7), Vanderbilt (No. 9), Mississippi State (No. 22) and Ole Miss (No. 24).
Of those SEC teams, Florida will play four of them during the regular season in Texas A&M, Tennessee, Vanderbilt, and Ole Miss. With Miami (No. 8) also making the cut, the Orange & Blue are scheduled to take on a grand total of five CB preseason top 25 teams in 2023.
Gators and the rest of the top-25
- LSU
- Florida
- Stanford
- Texas A&M
- Tennessee
- Louisville
- Arkansas
- Miami
- Vanderbilt
- Wake Forest
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma State
- UCLA
- U.C. Santa Barbara
- TCU
- Virginia
- Texas Tech
- Southern Miss
- Oregon
- East Carolina
- Maryland
- Mississippi State
- Georgia Tech
- Ole Miss
- Texas
