The Clemson Tigers baseball team received another top national ranking on Monday, as D1Baseball.com released its preseason Top 25.
While Texas A&M occupied the top spot, the Tigers came in at No. 15.
It’s the lowest preseason ranking the Tigers have received so far.
Last week, Baseball America ranked them No. 4 after they went 44-16 with a 20-10 record in the ACC. Perfect Game, meanwhile, has Clemson at No. 8.
Other ACC rivals are ranked in the Top 25, including Virginia (No. 2), North Carolina (No. 6), Florida State (No. 9), Duke (No. 11), NC State (No. 13) and Wake Forest (No. 14).
Last week, several Tigers players were selected as top players to watch this season.
Perfect Game ranked outfielder Cam Cannarella as the No. 5 junior in the country.
In his two-year collegiate career, Cannarella has batted .363 with 32 doubles, six triples, 18 homers, 107 RBI, 130 runs, with a .440 on-base percentage and 24 steals in 117 games. During his first year he was named All-ACC Freshman of the Year.
He played last year with a torn labrum, something he revealed after the season. He batted .337 with 16 doubles, three triples, 11 homers, 60 RBI and 58 runs. He had a .417 on-base percentage in 58 games. He also led the team with 29 multiple-hit games as he secured status as an all-American and all-ACC player.
Pitcher Aidan Knaak is also back after an all-America campaign and ranked among Perfect Game’s Top 25 sophomores.
He was named national freshman pitcher of the year by NCBWA after he went 5-1 with a 3.35 ERA in 15 starts. He struck out 108 and walked 29 in 83.1 innings, giving up just 67 hits and allowing batters to hit just .221 against him.
He was second in the nation among freshmen in ERA, strikeouts, strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.72) and WHIP (1.15).
Among freshmen, left-hander Talan Bell was ranked No. 15 by Baseball America.
The Oviedo, Fla., product played at Hagerty High School, where he was Perfect Game’s No. 6 player and No. 2 left-handed pitcher in the state. He was also named the Gatorade Player of the Year for the state and was named his conference’s player of the year.
In his final season at Hagerty he went 7-1 with a 0.99 ERA and 78 strikeouts. He also batted .379 with 28 RBI.
Clemson will head to Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, to open the regular season on Feb. 14 to play in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown against Oklahoma State, Arizona and Ole Miss.
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