The defending national champions will start the season as a Top 5 team in College Baseball.
Jay Johnson’s LSU Tigers come in at #4 in the D1 Baseball preseason poll, released on Tuesday by the #1 college baseball site.
Wake Forest is the top team followed by Florida, Arkansas, LSU, TCU, Vanderbilt, Oregon State, Texas A&M, Tennessee, and Clemson rounding out the Top 10. Alabama (19) and South Carolina (25) are the other SEC teams appearing in the preseason poll.
19 of LSU’s games on the 2024 schedule will be against teams in the D1 Baseball Top 25 while Coach Johnson, 2023’s National Coach of the Year, enters his third season in Baton Rouge.
LSU returns 21 players from last year’s title team as well as the No. 3 recruiting class in the country.
Key returners included All-American Tommy White, Freshman All-American Jared Jones, Hayden Travinski, Alex Milazzo, Josh Pearson, and Paxton Kling.
On the mound, LSU returns key depth in their pitching staff with players like Thatcher Hurd, Nate Ackenhausen, Gavin Guidry, and Griffin Herring.
Newcomers that will make an impact include Mac Bingham, Michael Braswell III, and Jake Brown. New pitchers Luke Holman, Gage Jump, Cam Johnson, and Justin Loer will add to that veteran experience to create one of the top rotations in America.
LSU will open the 2024 season on February 16 when they host VMI at Alex Box Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.