Dec. 19, 2011
Collegiate Baseball ranks Commodores 23rd in preseason poll
The first preseason poll of the year is out in college baseball and the Commodores are ranked 23 by Collegiate Baseball. Vanderbilt finished the 2011 season ranked fourth in the same poll after the school’s first-ever trip to the College World Series.
The 2012 edition of the Commodores will look much different from the one that played in Omaha last June after losing 13 lettermen, including 11 drafted players. However, the offense returns six starters to the lineup led by juniors Connor Harrell, Anthony Gomez and Mike Yastrzemski and sophomores Tony Kemp and Conrad Gregor.
A look at Collegiate Baseball’s Top 30 shows seven Vanderbilt opponents, including the poll’s top three in Florida, South Carolina and Stanford. The Dores will also take on LSU (No. 12), Louisville (No. 15), Georgia (No. 18) and Oregon (No. 27). The Southeastern Conference is well represented in the poll with seven teams inside the first 23.
To view the full poll click here.
Changes in Hoover
The Southeastern Conference has announced changes to the format of the SEC Tournament. Starting in 2012, 10 teams will qualify for the tournament in Hoover, Ala. up from eight. With the change the tournament now begins on Tuesday and run through Sunday.
From the SEC release:
“The tournament will continue to follow a format that is modeled in a similar fashion to previous SEC Tournament and College World Series brackets. The 10 teams are seeded 1-10 with the two divisional champions guaranteed of the top two seeds and first-round byes. Games played from Tuesday thru Friday are double elimination with single elimination starting on Saturday. The tournament field will include the top teams from the SEC’s Eastern and Western Divisions plus eight at-large bids seeded 3-10 based on conference winning percentage.”
