It’s exciting to see college baseball news ramping up. It’s even more exciting to see Illinois baseball making the headlines.
Illinois fans knew that we had had good team going into the 2019 season. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper agrees. They released their preseason Top 40 rankings yesterday and the Illini are at #34!
Louisiana State (39-27 in 2018) ranks first in CB’s rankings. At #28, the Minnesota Golden Gophers who went 44-15 in 2018, are the only Big Ten team that rank higher than the boys in Orange and Blue. Michigan (39-21) sneaks in at #39.
The Fighting Illini website has more info. An info tidbit from their article that struck me…
Illinois returns 97 percent of its pitching wins, 98 percent of its pitching starts, 91 percent of its innings pitched…
As good as the Illini were last year (33-20 overall), their returning pitchers have that much more experience. Combine that with returning starters like preseason All-American Michael Massey and his cohorts, and you have a winning combination!
Good luck, Team!