Final Baseball Polls Released
6/25/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Final Baseball Polls Released
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Three of the final season baseball polls have been released, and Southern Miss was ranked as high as No. 15 by Baseball America and were No. 19 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writer's Association and No. 25 in Collegiate Baseball.
Conference USA member Houston, off its Super Regional appearance at Rice is ranked No. 16 in Collegiate Baseball, No. 20 in the writers' poll and No. 22 in Baseball America. Tulane is No. 25 in the writers' poll, TCU is 31st and East Carolina received votes.
Southern Miss finished 47-16 overall and 23-7 in Conference USA, setting the school record for most wins in a season and the conference record for most conference wins in a season. The Golden Eagles won the Conference USA regular-season title, the tournament championship and hosted the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional Tournament, finishing second. They also set the school record for the highest ranking (12) by Baseball America. The Golden Eagles led the conference in hitting (.318), RBIs (455), runs (497), hits (712), walks (255), sacrifice flies (34), on-base percentage (.396), slugging percentage (.516), doubles (142), home runs (89), total bases (455), saves (19) and ERA (3.56).
The Golden Eagles return 17 letterwinners, including six of the eight position starters, two starting pitchers and the entire bullpen. Ten newcomers will be added to the roster for the upcoming year as well.