The UTRGV baseball team is receiving votes in Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 50 NCAA Division I Preseason Poll presented by Big League Chew, which was released Tuesday.
The Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll, dating back to the 1959 college baseball season. This is the first time since 1986 that the baseball program has been recognized in Collegiate Baseball’s poll, when legacy institution Pan American University was ranked No. 25 in the final season poll. UTRGV received votes in two National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) polls in 2021 (Feb. 22 and March 8).
“It’s a great honor for our program to be mentioned with the best teams in the nation and speaks highly to how far we’ve come over the last few years,” UTRGV baseball head coach Derek Matlock said. “It’s nice to be recognized in a preseason poll, but now we want to be in the poll at the end of the year because that means we’re in the NCAA Tournament. That’s what we want to do – win our conference and go to a regional.”
The Vaqueros went 33-25 in the 2022 season and finished 17-13 in the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), earning the Southwest Division’s No. 3 seed in the conference tournament. The Vaqueros return 18 student-athletes from the 2022 season, including senior Brandon Pimentel, who led UTRGV in seven offensive categories (batting average, runs, hits, doubles, homeruns, RBI, slugging percentage) and was named Collegiate Baseball’s National Player of the Week on March 7. Pimentel earned ABCA/Rawlings All-Central Region Second Team honors.
UTRGV opens its 2023 season on Feb. 17 with a three-game series against Houston Christian at UTRGV Baseball Stadium in Edinburg. The Vaqueros host six teams featured in Collegiate Baseball’s preseason poll, including No. 26 Central Michigan, No. 34 Houston, No. 36 Grand Canyon, Texas State (RV), California Baptist (RV) and Sam Houston (RV).
