Oregon State Beavers debut at No. 7 in college baseball preseason national rankings (e-edition)
Published 10:00 pm Tuesday, January 16, 2024
The Oregon State Beavers are one-third of the way to becoming a consensus top 10 preseason college baseball team.
The Beavers debuted at No. 7 in the D1baseball preseason Top 25 on Tuesday, landing their second top 10 ranking this month. Oregon State debuted at No. 9 in the Perfect Game Top 25.
The Beavers are the highest ranked team in the Pac-12 and the West Coast in the preseason poll, and enter the season trailing only No. 1 Wake Forest, No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Arkansas, No. 4 LSU, No. 5 TCU and No. 6 Vanderbilt.
UCLA, which debuted at No. 22, is the only other Pac-12 team ranked in the top 25 of the D1Baseball poll. There are six major college baseball polls, but The Oregonian/OregonLive uses the D1Baseball Top 25 for its rankings.
Oregon State enters the season with one of the nation’s deepest and most talented rosters, which includes six returning starters from a team that reached the Baton Rouge Regional last season. The Beavers return slugger Mason Guerra, starting catcher Tanner Smith, their entire starting outfield (Gavin Turley, Micah McDowell and Brady Kasper), two starters from their weekend rotation (Jacob Kmatz and Jaren Hunter) and All-America candidate Travis Bazzana, who is expected to contend for the Golden Spikes Award and be among the top five selections in the MLB draft.