Building Champions
 Aggies Ranked No. 4 in NCBWA Preseason Poll

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Jan. 13, 2009

DALLAS - The defending Big 12 champion Texas A&M baseball team earned the No. 4 spot in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association preseason poll, the organization released Tuesday.

North Carolina claimed the top spot, followed by LSU, Rice, the Aggies and Georgia. Florida State, Arizona State, Texas, Stanford and Cal State Fullerton rounded out the top 10.

The NCBWA is the second organization to rank A&M in its preseason top 10, as Collegiate Baseball newspaper pegged the Aggies' ninth in their rankings last month.

Along with the third-ranked Owls, eighth-ranked Longhorns and 10th-ranked Titans, other 2009 opponents appearing in the poll were No. 15 UC Irvine, No. 16 Oklahoma State, No. 19 Baylor, No. 20 Missouri, No. 28 Oklahoma and No. 32 TCU.

Defending national champion Fresno State was ranked 17th.

The Big 12 and the Pacific-10 each were represented by a poll-best six schools. The poll voters come from 32 college baseball writers and related media persons from throughout the nation.

Texas A&M returns 14 letterwinners, four position starters and nine pitchers from a 2008 squad that went 46-19, won the Big 12 regular-season title and the NCAA College Station Regional championship. The Aggies begin practice February 1 in preparation for the season opener on Friday, Feb. 20 against Wright State at Olsen Field. Season tickets are available now by calling 888-99-AGGIE or by logging on to aggieathletics.com.

NCBWA PRESEASON TOP 35 POLL 

Rk School                        '08 Rec '08 Final
 1 North Carolina       ACC        54-14     3
 2 LSU                  SEC        49-19-1   6
 3 Rice                 C-USA      47-15     7
 4 Texas A&M            Big 12     46-19    14
 5 Georgia              SEC        45-25-1   2
 6 Florida State        ACC        54-14     8
 7 Arizona State        Pac-10     49-13     9
 8 Texas                Big 12     39-22    21
 9 Stanford             Pac-10     41-24-2   4
10 Cal State Fullerton  Big West   41-22    11
11 Louisville           Big East   41-21    NR
12 Miami (Fla.)         ACC        53-11     5
13 Georgia Tech         ACC        41-21    26
14 Mississippi          SEC        39-26    NR
15 UC Irvine            Big West   42-18    10
16 Oklahoma State       Big 12     44-18    17
17 Fresno State         WAC        47-31     1
18 San Diego            West Coast 44-17    18
19 Baylor               Big 12     32-26    NR
20 Missouri             Big 12     39-21    19
21 Pepperdine           WCC        38-21    NR
22 Coastal Carolina     Big South  50-14    13
23 Kentucky             SEC        44-19    23
24 Florida              SEC        34-24    NR
25 UCLA                 Pac-10     33-27    NR
26 Clemson              ACC        31-27-1  NR
27 East Carolina        C-USA      42-21    NR
28 Oklahoma             Big 12     36-26    NR
29 Arizona              Pac-10     42-19    12
30 Michigan             Big Ten    46-14    28
31 Oregon State         Pac-10     28-24    NR
32 TCU                  Mtn West   44-19    NR
33 Southern California  Pac-10     28-28    NR
34 Tulane               C-USA      39-22-1  NR
35 Wichita State        Mo Valley  48-17    15

Others receiving votes (listed alphabetically): Alabama (35-28), Arkansas (34-24), Auburn (28-28), Bethune-Cookman (36-22), California (33-21-2), Charlotte (43-16), College of Charleston (39-20), Dallas Baptist (37-19), Elon (44-18), Houston (42-24), Lamar (35-23), Long Beach State (38-21), Missouri State (40-17), NC State (42-22), Nebraska (41-16), New Orleans (43-21), Notre Dame (33-21-1), Ohio State (30-26), Oral Roberts (48-14), Oregon (0-0), Sam Houston State (37-25), San Diego State (31-28), Santa Clara (33-22), South Carolina (40-23), Southern Miss (42-22), St. John's (42-16), Tennessee (27-29), UC Davis (35-24), UC Santa Barbara (35-21), UNC Wilmington (44-17), UTSA (39-19), Vanderbilt (41-22), Virginia (39-23).

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