LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The 2015 Louisville baseball team earned its second preseason top 12 ranking slotting at No. 11 overall in the inaugural D1Baseball.com preseason Top 25 released on Monday.

Last month, the Cardinals were ranked at No. 12 in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper preseason top 40. After ending the 2014 season at the College World Series and with a No. 6 national ranking in multiple national polls, Louisville enters 2015 ranked in the preseason top 25 for the eighth consecutive season. Last season, Louisville was ranked as highly as No. 8 in the preseason poll by Collegiate Baseball, while in 2013, the Cardinals entered the season ranked as highly as No. 4 by Baseball America.

Louisville is among five ACC schools in the D1Baseball preseason Top 25, the second highest total for any conference. The ACC is led in the poll by No. 3 Virginia followed by No. 6 North Carolina, the 11th-ranked Cardinals, No. 15 Miami and No. 21 Florida State.

Reigning NCAA champion Vanderbilt is atop the D1Baseball Top 25 followed by No. 2 Florida, No. 3 Virginia, No. 4 UCLA and No. 5 South Carolina. Overall, six teams in the top 25 in the preseason poll are on the Cardinals’ schedule in 2015 – No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 3 UVA, No. 15 Miami, No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 19 Cal State Fullerton and No. 21 Florida State.

Guided by ninth year head coach Dan McDonnell, Louisville returns 19 letterwinners from its 2014 squad, which finished 50-17 overall, won the program’s fifth regular season conference championship in six seasons and hosted NCAA postseason games for the second straight year. The Cardinals defeated Kennesaw State in the Louisville Super Regional to clinch their third CWS berth in eight seasons under McDonnell. Louisville, which has hosted six different rounds of NCAA postseason baseball in the last eight years, ended the season ranked as highly as sixth in the national polls.

In his eight seasons guiding the Louisville baseball program, McDonnell has placed the Cardinals among the nation’s elite with three College World Series berths, four NCAA Super Regional appearances, seven NCAA Regional bids, five conference regular season titles, two conference tournament titles, 14 All-Americans and 359 wins overall (seventh most nationally during that eight-year span).

The Cardinals will open the 2015 season at the Clearwater (Fla.) Tournament against Alabama State (Feb. 13), USF (Feb. 14) and Cal State Fullerton (Feb. 15) at Bright House Field. Louisville’s 33-game home slate at Jim Patterson Stadium is set to begin on Feb. 18 against Eastern Kentucky.

Fans can follow Louisville baseball on Twitter (@UofLBaseball) at http://twitter.com/uoflbaseball and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ulbaseball.

2015 D1Baseball.com Preseason Top 25

  1. Vanderbilt (51-21)
  2. Florida (40-23)
  3. Virginia (53-16)
  4. UCLA (25-30)
  5. South Carolina (44-18)
  6. North Carolina (35-27)
  7. Houston (48-18)
  8. TCU (48-18)
  9. LSU (46-16)
  10. Texas (46-21)
  11. Louisville (50-17)
  12. Oklahoma State (48-18)
  13. Rice (42-20)
  14. Maryland (40-23)
  15. Miami (44-19)
  16. Texas Tech (45-21)
  17. Texas A&M (36-26)
  18. Ole Miss (48-21)
  19. Cal State Fullerton (34-24)
  20. Alabama (37-24)
  21. Florida State (43-17)
  22. Oregon (44-20)
  23. Nebraska (41-21)
  24. Arizona State (33-24)
  25. Tennessee (31-23)
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Mark Blankenbaker

@UofLSheriff50. Louisville native, University of Louisville Business School Grad c/o 2004. Co-Founder of TheCrunchZone.com

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