LEXINGTON, Ky. ? The Kentucky baseball team has received its second preseason national ranking this offseason, as Rivals.com released its annual top-25 poll placing the defending Southeastern Conference Champions No. 23, the organization announced Wednesday.
Kentucky is coming off the most successful season in school history, winning a school-record 44 games and hosting the school?s first NCAA Regional. That success has laid the foundation for a Kentucky baseball program determined to become a fixture on the national college baseball scene.
After the historic turnaround during the 2006 season, the Wildcats hit the ground running during the offseason, assembling a mix of tested veterans with a wealth of fresh-faced talent. Kentucky head coach John Cohen, the 2006 SEC Coach of the Year, has filled the UK dugout with talented young players eager to build a winning tradition. Several publications tabbed the Wildcat 2007 recruiting class among the best in the nation, including the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper ranking the class No. 21.
The Wildcats will be paced in 2007 by several individual standouts who have garnered national recognition this preseason, including catcher Sean Coughlin and junior outfielder Collin Cowgill. The two sluggers combined to blast 33 home runs and drive in 116 runs a year ago while batting in a potent Wildcat lineup which featured SEC Player of the Year Ryan Strieby. Coughlin was named a first-team All-American while Cowgill and right-handed ace Greg Dombrowski earned third-team honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Cowgill and Coughlin were both named to the Brooks Wallace Award watch list, an award annually given to the most outstanding player in college baseball, while Dombrowski made the Roger Clemens Award watch list, annually given to the best pitcher in college baseball.
Seven other SEC teams joined the Wildcats in the top-25, with South Carolina ranking highest among league foes at No. 3.
The 2007 Kentucky baseball season begins with a February (16-18) road trip to Greenville, S.C. to face off with the Furman Paladins before kicking off the home portion of the schedule with a Feb. 21 tilt against in-state rival Murray State.
