D1Baseball.com Preseason Top-25 Rankings
OMAHA, Neb. - Cal State Fullerton was ranked No. 19 in D1Baseball.com's inaugural preseason top-25 rankings, it was announced Monday.
The Titans were the only program from the Big West Conference to make it onto the rankings. They are also one of four programs from a western region school to find themselves in the top-25 with the other three (UCLA, No.4; Oregon, No. 22; Arizona State, No. 24) coming from the PAC-12 Conference.
During the 2015 season, the Titans will take on five other teams in D1Baseball.com's top-25 rankings including No. 4 UCLA (April 14 at UCLA; May 12 at Goodwin Field), No. 11 Louisville (Feb. 15 at Clearwater Tournament), No. 14 Maryland (April 17-19 at Maryland), No. 16 Texas Tech (March 6-8 at Goodwin Field) and No. 23 Nebraska (March 24-25 at Nebraska).
Defending national champion Vanderbilt headlined the poll with the top spot with Florida, Virginia, UCLA and South Carolina completing the top-five spots respectively. The SEC leads all conferences with eight Top 25 teams overall, followed by the ACC (five), Big 12 (four), Pac-12 (three) and Big Ten (two).
In 2015, D1Baseball is adding comprehensive coverage of college baseball through the additions of ESPN personality Kyle Peterson, national writers Aaron Fitt and Kendall Rogers, and regional bloggers Mark Etheridge (Southeast), Dustin McComas (Southwest), Michael Baumann (North), and Eric Sorenson and Shotgun Spratling (West).
The ranking is Fullerton's second in a major preseason poll so far as the Titans were pegged as the No. 17 team in Collegiate Baseball's Fabulous 40 NCAA Division I baseball poll presented by Big League Chew bubble gum on Dec. 22.
The Titans are coming off the 40th consecutive winning season and 30-win season in the program's NCAA Division I history. Fullerton advanced to its 23rd consecutive NCAA Tournament in 2014.
After having seven players selected in the 2014 Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft, star pitchers Thomas Eshelman and Justin Garza headline the returners to the team for the 2015 season. Collegiate Baseball named both pitchers 2015 Louisville Slugger Preseason All Americans on Dec. 19 while Eshelman also earned a nod as a second-team Preseason All-American from Perfect Game.
Eshelman has led the nation in walks allowed-per-nine innings in his first two seasons with Cal State Fullerton, including setting a national record with a 0.23 mark as a freshman.
Garza recorded the fourth no-hitter in Cal State Fullerton history in his sophomore season, holding CSUN without a hit on May 23, 2014. He walked three and struck out 12, matching his career high. After two seasons, Garza currently ranks sixth in the Titans career record book in fewest walks allowed per nine innings (1.49) and is tied for eighth with a 5.0 strikeout-to-walk ratio. His 2.49 career ERA also currently ranks eighth while his .224 opponent's batting average ranks 10th in the record book.
During the summer, both pitchers were selected to the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, becoming the 24th and 25th Titans to represent Cal State Fullerton on the team dating back to 1987. It was also the sixth time multiple Titans have been named to the squad.
Joining Eshelman, Garza and the rest of the returners will be a recruiting class that was ranked No. 10 by Collegiate Baseball. It will feature five players that were selected in the 2014 MLB Draft (Tristan Hildebrandt, Connor Seabold, Jordan Hand, Chris Hudgins and John Gavin) along with 2014 signees and summer baseball standouts Chad Bible and Scott Hurst.
In 2015, the Titans will host 26 home games and seven weekend series' at Goodwin Field and tickets are currently on sale.
The Titans will also host the Alumni game Saturday at 1 p.m. at Goodwin Field.