Diamond Dogs picked to finish second in SEC West
The Southeastern Conference is loaded with elite baseball teams and as such, it’s evident there’s very little consensus as to how things are going to shake out in 2020.
The SEC released its predicted order of finish for the upcoming season on Thursday, as voted on by the league’s 14 head coaches. The results show it seems to be anyone’s game in the upcoming campaign.
Mississippi State was predicted to finish second in the SEC Western Division this year. Arkansas was the predicted West champion. However, it was far from a consensus decision.
Arkansas received five firstplace votes to win the West. MSU received four. Two other teams also received votes to win the division. LSU and Auburn tied for third in the predicted order of finish, but LSU had three votes to finish first while Auburn had two. The SEC West predictions were rounded out with Texas A&M in fifth, Ole Miss in sixth and Alabama in seventh.
There was a bit more uniformity in the Eastern Division predictions. Vanderbilt was voted the clear favorite to win the East with nine first-place votes. Florida was picked second with three first-place votes, followed by Georgia with two first-place votes. Tennessee was projected fourth with South Carolina fifth, Missouri sixth and Kentucky seventh.
Vanderbilt was also chosen as the overwhelming favorite to win the overall SEC title. The Commodores received eight first-place votes. Florida received two votes to win the league’s overall crown. Arkansas, Auburn, Georgia and Mississippi State all received one vote each.
All teams will open up their seasons one week from today.
For MSU, the Bulldogs begin play next Friday as they host Wright State at 4 p.m. at Dudy Noble Field. State – a consensus preseason top 10 team nationally in all six major polls – is looking forward to trying to get back to the College World Series for the third straight season and despite potential challenges, the Bulldogs like their team.
“It’s just a special group of kids that we have,” MSU head coach Chris Lemonis said a couple of weeks ago. “I credit that to the kids but also our coaching staff. Jake Gautreau was the national assistant coach of the year and Scott Foxhall was the national teaching pro of the year (for last season). We surround these guys with some special people and then all of our staff. We’ve spent a long time in the weight room and, hopefully, we’re pretty strong right now, in shape, healthy and ready to go. We’ve been ranked from four to about 15 in the country. I think everybody is about right because we have some really good players and we have some really big holes. If we can fill those holes and find the guys to play in those spots, which I think we have (those guys), then I think we have the chance to be a very special team.”
Five picked ALL-SEC
A big reason for MSU’S high expectations this season is the fact the Bulldogs have a core of five juniors that anchor the State lineup. All five of those juniors were picked preseason ALL-SEC selections by the league’s coaches on Thursday.
Bulldog second baseman Justin Foscue was voted to the conference’s first team. Meanwhile Josh Hatcher (first base), Jordan Westburg (shortstop), Rowdey Jordan (outfield) and Tanner Allen (designated hitter/utility) were all chosen as second team ALLSEC selections.
Three chosen All-american
Foscue, Allen and pitcher J.T. Ginn also picked up preseason All-american selections from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association on Thursday.
Foscue was chosen to the outlet’s first team. Ginn and Allen were both on the third team.
For Foscue and Ginn, the selections stand as their fifth preseason All-american designations. Allen now has been chosen to four preseason All-america teams.
Westburg wasn’t picked by the NCBWA, but he has been picked to two preseason All-america teams over the last few weeks.