STARKVILLE — Fans in Starkville are wondering by the Mississippi State University baseball team was absent from two major preseason polls released this week.
MSU, which finished 15th in the final USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll last season, wasn’t ranked in the 2012 preseason coaches’ poll or the Baseball America preseason rankings despite returning 14 of 16 pitchers who took the mound last season.
“(The rankings are) not what we’re focused on or worried about,” MSU coach John Cohen said Thursday.
Cohen, who is in his fourth season at MSU, understands the reservations people have about how a lineup that will look very different from last season.
“The polls are usually based upon who you have coming back and on scouting based upon where young kids were drafted out of high school,” Cohen said. “When you have seven new starters on the field that we feel great about but these guys haven’t seen, then I understand what happened.”
MSU went 38-25 last season and won all three games at the 2011 NCAA Atlanta Regional. It was six outs away from upsetting the University of Florida, the No. 2 national seed, in the Gainesville Super Regional to earn a trip to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb.
Baseball America national baseball writer Aaron Fitt said this week MSU was the last team not to make his publication’s Top 25 rankings.
“We love the pitching they have coming back,” Fitt said. “They have a veteran guy in Nick Routt to anchor the rotation with some big, exciting arms behind him in Chris Stratton and Evan Mitchell, who are guys that can run it up there in the mid 90s (miles per hour).”
Stratton and right-handed sophomore Ben Bracewell will go against each
other in a five-inning scrimmage today in MSU’s first official practice of the spring. All of MSU’s baseball practices are open to the public. Afternoon scrimmage games also are planned for 12:30 p.m. Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Sunday. MSU will count on production from sophomore Hunter Renfroe, who turned down a six-figure signing bonus from the Boston
Red Sox two years ago to honor his commitment to MSU. Perfect Game USA named Renfroe as the top pro prospect on his collegiate summer
league baseball team, the Bethesda (Md.) Big Train. He hit .305 and had a club-record and league-leading eight home runs in helping power Bethesda to a 36-9 record and its third consecutive Cal Ripken Collegiate League championship.
“He’s a freakish talent with huge raw power and biggest raw power you’ll probably see in the SEC,” Fitt said. “He’s got a big, big arm, too, that can run it up 98-99 (miles per hour). If he realizes his potential then look out. The sky is the limit for him.”
Seven Southeastern Conference were ranked in the Baseball America Top 25, including six in the top 11. National runner-up Florida is the consensus top-ranked team entering this season.
“Florida was an easy call for us as the No. 1 team,” Baseball America editor John Manuel said in the magazine’s preseason podcast. “They’re much more well-rounded and complete and about as safe a bet to get into the College World Series as you can bet.”
Florida (No. 1), South Carolina (No. 2), Arkansas (No. 8), Vanderbilt (No. 12), LSU (No. 14), and Georgia (No. 25) were ranked in the top 25 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches poll. MSU was also receiving votes at No. 28, followed by the University of Mississippi (No. 42) and the University of Alabama (No. 47).
MSU will open its season Feb. 17 against Washington State. The three-game series will kick off a 17-game homestand.
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