The TCU Horned Frogs are once again picked to win the Mountain West Conference regular season baseball title and if they do it would mark their sixth straight Mountain West regular season title. The preseason poll is conducted by the Mountain West head coaches and the media. Besides being picked first in the Mountain West, TCU is ranked first by Baseball America and third by Collegiate Baseball.
TCU returns their entire starting pitching staff which is led by All-American Matt Purke, plus they return all seven position players off of last year's team that finished ranked third in the final polls with an overall record of 54-14.
TCU received all 16 first place and was awarded 112 points and they are well ahead of the BYU Cougars who are predicted to finish second with 84 points. Second place will be hotly contested between BYU, San Diego State and New Mexico as they were bunched together. The Air Force Falcons were picked to finish last by quite a large margin.
All seven Mountain West baseball teams start the 2011 season on Feb. 18, and Air Force takes on the Missouri State Bears in their 2011 opener. Missouri State was picked to finish sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference.
2011 MWC BASEBALL PRESEASON POLL (selected by MWC head coaches and media) |
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Rk. | Team (1st place votes) | Points |
1. | TCU (16) | 112 |
2. | BYU | 84 |
3. | San Diego State | 75 |
4. | New Mexico | 71 |
5. | UNLV | 45 |
6. | Utah | 43 |
7. | Air Force | 18 |