Baseball ranks in top 15 in preseason polls, No. 3 recruiting class
Redshirt senior outfielder Eric Filia, who helped lead the 2013 UCLA team to a national championship, will be back in the Bruins’ lineup this year. Filia sat out the past two seasons, 2014 due to an injury and 2015 due to academic ineligibility. (Daily Bruin file photo)
By Matt Cummings
Jan. 14, 2016 8:40 a.m.
The baseball team received top-15 rankings in two recent national preseason polls, coming in at No. 11 in the D1Baseball poll and at No. 14 in the Perfect Game USA poll.
Three other Pac-12 teams were listed in the top 25 of both rankings. Oregon State – listed No. 5 by D1Baseball and No. 6 by Perfect Game – and California – No. 9 and No. 8 – showed up in the top ten in both, while Oregon placed at No. 14 and No. 12. USC was ranked No. 12 by D1Baseball and unranked by Perfect Game.
The Bruins will face two other teams ranked by both organizations: Mississippi State, No. 15 and No. 17, and North Carolina, No. 16 and No. 22. In addition, Cal State Fullerton, Texas and Oklahoma were listed in one poll, but not the other.
UCLA returns six of its starting position players this season but will lose three key hitters in Kevin Kramer, Ty Moore and Chris Keck and two star pitchers in James Kaprielian and David Berg. But coach John Savage brings in the nation’s No. 3 recruiting class as rated by Baseball America, as well as redshirt senior outfielder Eric Filia. Filia helped the Bruins win the national title in 2013 but has sat out the past two seasons with an injury in 2014 and academic ineligibility in 2015.
Compiled by Matt Cummings, Bruin Sports senior staff.
