Clemson baseball ranked 12th in USA Today Coaches Poll

by CU Athletic Communications - Thu Jan 26 16:20:25 GMT-04:00 2017

Clemson is ranked 12th in the USA Today preseason coaches poll that was released Thursday afternoon.

The 2017 Tigers will hold their first full-squad practice of the new year on Friday at 2:30 p.m., at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Clemson was picked to finish third in the ACC Atlantic Division by the league coaches on Wednesday.

Head coach Monte Lee returns six of nine position starters and pitchers who made 48 of the 64 starts (75 percent) on the mound in 2016. Clemson returns 2016 Dick Howser Trophy winner and ACC Player-of-the-Year Seth Beer and fellow first-team All-American Pat Krall, a senior lefthander.

Last season, Clemson finished with a final ranking of #15 by USA Today, #17 by Baseball America, and #18 by Collegiate Baseball. Clemson's 2017 season will start against Wright State on February 17 at home.

RANK TEAM RECORD POINTS 1ST PLACE VOTES PREV CHANGE HI/LOW 1 Texas Christian 49-18 764 24 3 2 1/3

2 Florida 52-16 710 4 5 3 2/5

3 Louisiana State 45-21 680 2 12 9 3/12

4 South Carolina 46-18 635 0 14 10 4/14

5 Florida State 41-22 616 0 13 8 5/13

6 Vanderbilt 43-19 581 0 17 11 6/17

7 Oregon State 35-19 563 0 NR 0 7/NR

8 Louisville 50-14 525 0 10 2 8/10

9 Coastal Car. 55-18 396 1 1 -8 1/9

10 East Carolina 38-23-1 387 0 16 6 10/16

11 Cal Fullerton 36-23 371 0 32 21 11/NR

12 Clemson 44-20 369 0 15 3 12/15

13 UNC 34-21 362 0 NR 0 13/NR

14 NC State 38-22 339 0 20 6 14/20

15 Arizona 49-24 325 0 2 -13 2/15

16 La Lafayette 43-21 316 0 19 3 16/19

17 Miami 50-14 292 0 8 -9 8/17

18 Virginia 38-22 271 0 22 4 18/22

19 Texas Tech 47-20 259 0 6 -13 6/19

20 Texas A&M 49-16 234 0 9 -11 9/20

21 Stanford 31-23 175 0 NR 0 21/NR

22 Oklahoma State 43-22 160 0 4 -18 4/22

23 UC Santa Bar. 43-20-1 126 0 7 -16 7/23

24 Mississippi 43-19 97 0 18 -6 18/24

25 Rice 38-24 86 0 30 5 25/NR

*Hi/Low Rankings

Hi/Low = The highest and lowest ranking each team has held during the designated season. Any team that starts the season unranked and/or falls out of the top 25 during the season will reflect a "NR" (not ranked) designation as its lowest rank.

Others Receiving Votes

Washington 85; Long Beach State 62; Maryland 59; North Carolina-Wilmington 42; Dallas Baptist 35; Texas 22; Houston 20; Arizona State 19; Mississippi State 19; UCLA 12; Michigan 10; Southern California 7; Sam Houston State 6; Georgia Tech 5; Auburn 4; Arkansas 3; Florida Atlantic 3; Minnesota 3; New Mexico 3; Oklahoma 3; Seattle 3; Tulane 2; Rhode Island 2; Bryant 2; Cal Poly 1; Oregon 1; Marist 1; Southeastern Louisiana 1; Southern Illinois 1.

List of Voters

The USA TODAY Sports board of coaches is made up of 31 coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the American Baseball Coaches Association. The board for the 2017 season: John Anderson, Minnesota; Ed Blankmeyer, St. John's; Ray Birmingham, New Mexico; Britt Bonneau, Abilene Christian; Ryan Brownlee, Western Illinois; Craig Cozart, High Point; Barry Davis, Rider; Bill Decker, Harvard; Greg DiCenzo, Holy Cross; Jeff Forehand, Lipscomb; Nino Giarratano, San Francisco; Danny Hall, Georgia Tech; Fritz Hamburg, Saint Joseph's; Carlton Hardy, Savannah State; Dan Heefner, Dallas Baptist; Charlie Hickey, Central Connecticut State; Josh Holliday, Oklahoma State; George Horton, Oregon; Steve Jaksa, Central Michigan; Link Jarrett, UNC-Greensboro; Dave Jarvis, Belmont; Omar Johnson, Jackson State; Manny Mantrana, Texas Rio Grande Valley; John McCormack, Florida Atlantic; Jeff Mercer, Wright State; Jim Penders, Connecticut; Tommy Raffo, Arkansas State; Mark Scalf, UNC-Wilmington; Dave Serrano, Tennessee; Matt Senk, Stony Brook; Rick Vanderhook, Cal State Fullerton.