Texas Tech baseball received their fourth preseason ranking of the year on Tuesday, checking in at No. 17 in the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) poll, the publication announced today.
The Red Raiders have been placed as high as No. 14 by D1 Baseball, while also picking up No. 19 from the USA Today Coaches and No. 25 from Baseball America. Tech has earned a preseason top 25 nod in each of the last three seasons.
The 2017 poll voters come from among 40 college baseball writers and related media persons from regions throughout the nation. Five of Tech’s opponents appear in the preseason NCBWA rankings.
After starting 2016 in the top 25 of one poll, Tech navigated through their slate to their third-straight 30+ win season behind a 47-20 record, including a 19-5 conference mark en route to a No. 5 national seed and a final ranking of No. 4. The Red Raiders earned their first Big 12 title under head coach Tim Tadlock, fifth in program history, and returned to the College World Series for the second time in three years last season. Tech’s 47 wins were the third-most in school history and was the second 45+ win season in three years.
Now in his fifth year as head coach, Tadlock returns 17 letterwinners from last year’s championship squad, including All-American outfielder Tanner Gardner and Freshman All-Americans Steven Gingery and Davis Martin.
Gardner became the 34th All-America honoree in school history with his nod from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) after tallying a team-high .379 batting average with 89 hits, including 19 doubles, six triples and three home runs, along with 35 RBI and 55 runs scored. He was also a unanimous All-Big 12 First Team selection after leading the conference in batting average (.379), on-base percentage (.484) and triples (six).
Gingery and Martin became the 13th & 14th Freshman All-Americans in the program record books after a strong debut season in the scarlet & black. Gingery led the Red Raiders with 63 strikeouts after putting together a 4-2 record overall, including a spotless 3-0 conference record and a 1.85 ERA, a mark that led the conference. Martin also had a clean Big 12 mark going 6-0 in league play on his way to a 10-1 overall record, which made him the first Red Raider freshman ever to earn 10 wins and first Tech pitcher since Steve Rowe in 2002.
Martin earned four Freshman All-America honors in 2016 and garnered Preseason All-America accolades from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper on Dec. 19.
The Red Raiders open the 2017 slate on the road with a pair of two-game series against Mississippi State and Western Illinois beginning Feb. 17 in Starkville, Mississippi.