Alabama baseball was picked to finish last in the SEC West in the preseason poll of the league coaches, the conference announced on Monday.
It’s the fourth straight year Alabama has either been picked last or tied for last in the division in the preseason poll. Alabama has not reached the SEC tournament in the last two seasons, but went 15-15 in the conference despite being picked to finish last in the West in 2016.
League coaches were not allowed to vote for their own teams.
Vanderbilt was picked as the preseason favorite to win the East, while LSU was chosen as the top team in the West. The 14 league coaches cast six votes for Vanderbilt to win the conference overall with five votes going to Vanderbilt. Florida received two votes to win the conference and Arkansas, which was the College World Series runner-up in 2018, received one vote.
Alabama did not have a representative among 26 players on the first-team or second-team preseason All-SEC picks. Alabama, Tennessee and Missouri were the three SEC schools without any players named preseason All-SEC.
The Crimson Tide begins the 2019 season on Feb. 15 with a three-game series at Sewell-Thomas Stadium against Presbyterian. Alabama finished 27-29 in 2018, including 8-22 in SEC play.
Here is the order of finish and preseason teams as predicted by the coaches:
2019 SEC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll
Eastern Division
Vanderbilt (9) – 87
Florida (4) – 81
Georgia (1) – 68
South Carolina – 53
Tennessee – 40
Kentucky – 30
Missouri – 26
Western Division
LSU (10) – 88
Ole Miss (1) – 65
Arkansas (1) – 59
Auburn (1) – 57
Texas A&M (1) – 48
Mississippi State – 47
Alabama – 21
() – First place votes
SEC Champion: Vanderbilt (6), LSU (5), Florida (2), Arkansas (1)
2019 SEC Baseball Coaches Preseason All-SEC Team
First Team
C: Philip Clarke, Vanderbilt
1B: Cole Zabowski, Ole Miss
2B: Austin Martin, Vanderbilt*
2B: Noah Campbell, South Carolina*
3B: Aaron Schunk, Georgia
SS: Casey Martin, Arkansas
OF: Heston Kjerstad, Arkansas
OF: Dominic Fletcher, Arkansas
OF: Jake Mangum, Mississippi State
DH/UTL: T.J. Collett, Kentucky
SP: Tanner Burns, Auburn
SP: Zack Thompson, Kentucky
RP: Matt Cronin, Arkansas
Second Team
C: Mason Meadows, Georgia
1B: Tanner Allen, Mississippi State
2B: LJ Talley, Georgia
3B: Tyler Keenan, Ole Miss
SS: Braden Shewmake, Texas A&M
OF: JJ Bleday, Vanderbilt
OF: Antoine Duplantis, LSU
OF: Daniel Cabrera, LSU
DH/UTL: Aaron Schunk, Georgia*
DH/UTL: Chase Cockrell, Ole Miss*
SP: John Doxakis, Texas A&M
SP: Tyler Dyson, Florida
RP: Parker Caracci, Ole Miss
*Tie (ties are not broken)
