College Top 25: April 3

Vincent Cervino

Craig Cozart

Photo: Kentucky Baseball (UK Athletics)

Believe it or not, we are at the halfway point of the season and conference races are heating up. The national scene is starting to become much clearer, and we can watch the RPI with much more certainty as to what teams are lining up to host postseason play. Once again, the Top-5 will remain the same as No. 1 LSU (24-4), No. 2 Florida (25-4), No. 3 Wake Forest (26-3), No. 4 Vanderbilt (23-5) and No. 5 Arkansas (23-5) all won their weekend series. That being said, there are now some teams lining up to jump into this range should any of the aforementioned clubs slip up in the next week or so.

There are three teams that were not in our preseason Top-25 that are our biggest risers this week as they have put together amazing campaigns thus far. No. 6 South Carolina (26-3) leads the nation in wins and home runs and have now won their first three SEC series to date. No. 7 Boston College (20-6) continues its historic start to the season, just know how to win and have taken 4 consecutive ACC series for the first time in program history. No. 9 Kentucky (25-3) has only lost twice since Opening Day and currently have the No. 1 RPI in the nation on the strength of one of the best pitching staffs in the nation.

The Stanford Cardinal (18-7) falls out of the Top-10 for the first time this year, landing at No. 12 after going (2-2) in a four-game set against unranked Oklahoma. ECU (20-8) now No. 15, had its toughest week of 2023 going 1-3 and losing a conference series to Houston. Having now lost 5 games in a row, UCLA (16-8) is only one game above .500 in Pac-12 play and is down to No. 19 in the polls. There are also two new additions to the rankings this week from teams making their Top-25 debuts. Coastal Carolina (18-7) went (4-0) this week with road victories over ranked UNC and conference foe Georgia State, so they debut at No. 20. Having won 10 games in a row, Northeastern (22-4) is one of the toughest teams in the nation and will enter the poll at No. 24.

Ranking	Team		Prev Rank	Week Rec.	Overall Rec.
1		LSU	1	(3-1)	(24-4)
2		Florida	2	(2-1)	(24-5)
3		Wake Forest	3	(4-0)	(26-3)
4		Vanderbilt	4	(4-0)	(23-5)
5		Arkansas	5	(3-1)	(23-5)
6		South Carolina	10	(3-1)	(26-3)
7		Boston College	13	(3-1)	(20-6)
8		Virginia	6	(2-2)	(24-3)
9		Kentucky	20	(4-0)	(25-3)
10		Tennessee	9	(2-2)	(20-7)
11		Campbell	14	(3-1)	(22-4)
12		Stanford	7	(3-2)	(18-7)
13		Texas Tech	15	(2-2)	(20-9)
14		Oklahoma State	16	(2-2)	(22-7)
15		East Carolina	8	(1-3)	(20-8)
16		North Carolina	18	(2-2)	(20-8)
17		Louisville	11	(2-2)	(21-6)
18		FGCU	19	(2-1)	(23-5)
19		UCLA	12	(0-3)	(16-8)
20		Coastal Carolina	NR	(4-0)	(18-7)
21		UConn	21	(4-1)	(20-6)
22		Miami	22	(4-0)	(19-9)
23		UTSA	25	(3-1)	(23-6)
24		Northeastern	NR	(5-0)	(22-4)
25		UC Santa Barbara	17	(1-2)	(18-6)