LSU baseball slides in at No. 1 in USA TODAY Sports preseason coaches poll

BATON ROUGE - LSU baseball will begin the 2023 season as the No. 1 team in the USA TODAY Sports coaches poll.

The Tigers were among seven SEC teams in the preseason poll released Thursday, all of which made the top 10. Tennessee is No. 2, followed by Texas A&M (No. 4), Florida (No. 5), Arkansas (No. 6), Ole Miss (No. 7) and Vanderbilt (No. 9).

LSU also is ranked No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America, D1 Baseball and National Collegiate Baseball Writers polls.

After getting eliminated by Southern Miss in the Hattiesburg Regional last season in coach Jay Johnson's first season, LSU got busy rebuilding its roster in the offseason.

The Tigers added high-profile transfers Paul Skenes, Thatcher Hurd and Tommy White, finishing the offseason with the No. 1 transfer class in the nation, according to D1Baseball. LSU also brought in multiple freshmen who could have been high draft picks in 2022, including Chase Shores, Paxton Kling, Gavin Guidry and Jared Jones.

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Those additions, coupled with returning stars Dylan Crews, Josh Pearson, Tre Morgan and Jordan Thompson, signified that LSU's odds of winning the national championship in 2023 were as good as anybody's.

Koki Riley covers LSU sports for The Daily Advertiser and the USA TODAY Sports South Region. Email him at kriley@theadvertiser.com and follow him on Twitter at @KokiRiley.

This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: LSU baseball No. 1 in 2023 USA TODAY Sports preseason coaches poll