Kentucky baseball jumps into D1Baseball Top 25 at No. 23 in week five rankings
Kentucky Wildcats pitcher Tyler Bosma (35) pitches the ball during the Kentucky vs. Indiana State baseball game on Saturday, March 4, 2023, at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington, Kentucky. Kentucky won 5-4. Photo by Travis Fannon | Staff
March 24, 2023
Kentucky baseball (18-2) earned the No. 23 ranking in the week five D1 Baseball Top 25 rankings on Monday, marking its first ranking of the season.
The ranking comes as a result of an impressive week of play for the Wildcats, first defeating Indiana on Tuesday before sweeping Mississippi State over the weekend to open SEC play.
The four victories over the past week extended Kentucky’s ongoing winning streak to fourteen games, its longest winning streak since 2012.
Not only is the ranking a statement for Kentucky, but it also further proves the recent dominance of SEC baseball, with ten of the conference’s fourteen teams finding a spot in the rankings.
LSU held steady at the No. 1 spot for the fifth consecutive week after a win over New Orleans and a series win against Texas A&M, despite losing the last game in that series.
The Tigers were the only team in the top 25 whose ranking stayed the same from the previous week.
Wake Forest jumped two spots to No. 2 after defeating Liberty and going 2-1 in its weekend series over Notre Dame.
The rest of the top five was represented by SEC teams with Florida, Vanderbilt and Arkansas each having jumped two spots.
Vanderbilt and Arkansas both finished the week undefeated with sweeps of Ole Miss and Auburn respectively.
There were no other SEC teams in the top 10 but Louisville, which Kentucky is set to face twice later in the season, jumped to No. 6 as a result of a series win over Georgia Tech.
South Carolina was one of the week’s biggest risers, moving up five spots to No. 11 as a reward for an undefeated week that included a series sweep over Georgia.
Tennessee and Ole Miss, who were No. 2 and 3 in week four, each took ten-spot tumbles after being swept by Missouri and Vanderbilt respectively.
The other two SEC teams in the poll besides Kentucky were Texas A&M and Missouri, coming in at No. 21 and 22 respectively, the two spots preceding the Wildcats.
Missouri entered the poll after going 4-0 in the week, which was even further highlighted by a sweep over formerly No. 2 Tennessee.
Six teams that were ranked in week four dropped out of the poll including TCU, Virginia Tech, Florida State, NC State, Alabama and Southern Miss.
The team that jumped the most from the previous week was Texas Tech, which improved eight spots to No. 14 after a 4-1 week that included a series victory over Oklahoma State.
Kentucky will face Eastern Kentucky on Tuesday, March 21, at 6:30 p.m. EST at Kentucky Proud Park in hopes of maintaining its ranked status.
After the one-off match against the Colonels, the Wildcats will travel to Tuscaloosa to face Alabama in its second SEC series of the season starting on Friday, March 24.
The full rankings can be seen below:
- LSU Tigers (18-2)
- Wake Forest Demon Deacons (18-3)
- Florida Gators (18-4)
- Vanderbilt Commodores (16-5)
- Arkansas Razorbacks (18-2)
- Louisville Cardinals (17-2)
- UCLA Bruins (15-3)
- Virginia Cavaliers (17-2)
- Stanford Cardinal (13-5)
- Eastern Carolina Pirates (16-4)
- South Carolina Gamecocks (20-1)
- Tennessee Volunteers (15-6)
- Ole Miss Rebels (14-6)
- Texas Tech Red Raiders (18-4)
- North Carolina Tar Heels (15-5)
- Boston College Eagles (14-3)
- Miami Hurricanes (14-6)
- Campbell Fighting Camels (15-3)
- Florida Gulf Coast Eagles (15-4)
- Oklahoma State Cowboys (16-5)
- Texas A&M Aggies (14-6)
- Missouri Tigers (16-3)
- Kentucky Wildcats (18-2)
- West Virginia Mountaineers (15-4)
- Grand Canyon Antelopes (14-5)
