Jan. 22, 2009
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - In the fourth of five major college baseball polls, USA Today released the 2009 USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches poll which has the University of San Diego baseball team ranking 15th in the nation according to 31 participating NCAA Div. I coaches.
San Diego is coming off its second straight WCC Championship and a strong run in last year's NCAA tournament, when it went 3-2 in the opening round, losing to eventual College World Series champion, Fresno State in the regional championship. Head Coach Rich Hill returns several players to a team that led the league in team ERA and strikeouts, in Team USA gold medalist AJ Griffin (JR., RHP), Kyle Blair (SO., RHP), and Sammy Solis (SO., LHP), who have all been named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list. Other notable returners are first-team All-WCC performer James Meador (JR., OF), All-WCC honorable mention honorees Kevin Muno (JR., OF) and Jose Valerio (SR., 1B).
Seven of San Diego's 2009 opponents also find themselves on Baseball America's preseason Top 25 including West Coast Conference opposition Pepperdine University at No. 21. Rice is the highest ranked opponent at No. 3 and is followed by Stanford (6th), Arizona State (7th), Cal State Fullerton (8th), and UC Irvine (18th).
The first USA Today/ESPN regular-season poll will be released Monday, March 2.
The USA TODAY/ESPN Board of Coaches is made up of 31 coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the American Baseball Coaches Association. The 2009 board: Terry Alexander, Jacksonville; John Anderson, Minnesota; Ed Blankmeyer, St. John's; Buddy Bolding, Longwood; Roger Cador, Southern; Rob Cooper, Wright State; Sherman Corbett, Texas-San Antonio; Tim Corbin, Vanderbilt; David Eldredge, Southern Utah; Mike Gaski, North Carolina-Greensboro, Nino Giarratano, San Francisco; Gary Gilmore, Coastal Carolina; Keith Guttin, Missouri State; Danny Hall, Georgia Tech; Loren Hibbs, Charlotte; Charlie Hickey, Central Connecticut State; Steve Jaksa, Central Michigan; Rick Jones, Tulane; Steve Kittrell, South Alabama; Ken Knutson, Washington; Kevin Leighton, Manhattan; Gary McClure, Austin Peay; Mervyl Melendez, Bethune-Cookman; Gary Powers, Nevada; Mark Scalf, North Carolina-Wilmington; Jim Schlossnagle, TCU; Matt Senk, Stony Brook; Steve Smith, Baylor; Joe Sottolano, Army; Joe Walsh, Harvard; Mike Weathers, Long Beach State.
The Toreros will open up the 2009 season Feb. 20 at the MLB Urban Youth Academy Tournament in Compton, Calif. against Southern University at 6 p.m.
