College Baseball 2023: five teams to watch this season

Five teams to watch in college baseball this season, listed in alphabetical order with 2022 records:

ARKANSAS (46-21)

Dave Van Horn has led the Razorbacks to the College World Series in seven of his 20 seasons and is still looking for the program’s first national championship. Arkansas made it to its CWS bracket final last season and is the only team in the country with at least 45 wins in each of the last five seasons, excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020.

LSU (40-22)

The consensus No. 1 team in the preseason rankings won the offseason with second-year coach Jay Johnson upgrading his pitching staff through recruiting and the transfer portal and adding one of the top power hitters in the entire wide country in Tommy White from North Carolina State.

Dylan Crews remains the star and is on track to be the top overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft.

MISSISSIPPI (42-23)

The Rebels rebounded from a midseason funk to win their first national championship as the last at-large team selected for the NCAA Tournament. SS Jacob Gonzalez is a projected top-10 draft pick and fully healthy after injuring a knee last fall. Five of the starting nine players are back in addition to pitchers who threw half of the innings at

the College World Series.

OKLAHOMA STATE (42-22)

Six everyday players return, and transfer Juaron Watts-Brown is conference preseason newcomer and pitcher of the year. WattsBrown threw the first complete game no-hitter in Long Beach State history, and his 13.62 strikeouts per nine innings were a program record. Nolan McLean hit a team-leading 19 homers.

TENNESSEE (57-9)

The Volunteers set a program record for wins and won SEC regular-season and tournament titles for the first time since 1995.

The foundation is set with the core of a pitching staff that led the nation in ERA.