LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky baseball team has been ranked 30th in the 2007 Baseball America preseason Top-50 poll, the magazine announced Thursday.

The ranking is the first such honor for the Wildcats this preseason and a major change from a year ago when UK was picked to finish last in the Southeastern Conference. Kentucky eventually won a school-record 44 games and claimed the school?s first Southeastern Conference Championship during a historic 2006 campaign. UK?s 2006 squad became the only team in conference history to go from worst-to-first in the course of a year, behind an explosive offensive philosophy which translated into UK plating a school-record 500 runs and blasting 99 home runs.

Kentucky finished the 2006 season ranked 20th in the final Baseball America poll, its highest final ranking in 18 years.

Several Kentucky players have garnered preseason honors so far, including catcher Sean Coughlin and outfielder Collin Cowgill, both of whom were named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List, annually given to the best college baseball player in the nation. Coughlin also was named a first-team preseason All-American while Cowgill and right-handed ace Greg Dombrowski earned third-team preseason honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Joining Kentucky in the top-50 were nine other SEC teams, including nine of UK?s 2007 opponents ? South Carolina (No. 6), Arkansas (No. 7), Vanderbilt (No. 8), Tennessee (No. 11), Evansville (No. 21), Ole Miss (No. 25), Georgia (No. 27), Auburn (No. 36) and LSU (No. 50).

The 2007 Kentucky baseball season starts with a three-game road trip (Feb. 16-18) to Greenville, S.C. to face off with the Furman Paladins. The home slate begins with a Feb. 21 matchup against cross-state rival Murray State at Cliff Hagan Stadium.