Florida was ranked second in Collegiate Baseball's Preseason Poll released Monday. It matches the team’s highest preseason showing in school history of second in 2006.
TCU headlines the publication's top five, followed by the Gators, UCLA, Clemson and Vanderbilt.
Fourth-year head coach Kevin O’Sullivan’s club will begin the 2011 campaign on Feb. 18 at McKethan Stadium, when USF visits for the opener of a three-game series.
Florida was 47-17 overall last season and claimed its 11th SEC title and 20th Eastern Division crown with a school-record 22-8 league mark that featured a 9-1 series performance.
The Gators join the rest of the SEC in the poll, as all 12 teams are either ranked (Vanderbilt, 5th; defending national champion South Carolina, 14th; LSU, 15th; Auburn, 25th; Arkansas, 32nd) or received votes (Ole Miss, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi State).
The contest with the Bulls begins the 35-game home schedule. Twenty of UF's 56 games during the regular season will be against squads listed in the Collegiate Baseball poll, which began during the 1958 season.
