We are making a bold statement here by putting the Gauchos #1 in our Pre-Season Mid-Major Rankings, but we firmly stand by this team. If you are looking for a Top 10 pitching staff in the nation, an offense that will get after your ass with both power and speed, and plays elite level defense, look no further than Santa Barbara, CA. They open up their season on the road against the Campbell Camels, which will be must watch television for any college baseball fan. Watch out for two Top 50 prospects for the Gauchos to have huge seasons. Ivan Brethowr, 6'6 250lbs, possess some of the most raw power in the country. Matt Ager will lead the loaded pitching staff, coming off of an impressive summer with Team USA.

Dallas Bombers University is back. Dallas Baptist returns a TON on offense. Their top 4 HR hitters are back: Nathan Humphreys,(14), Ethan Mann (20), Grant Jay (21), Miguel Santos (15). A year ago, their offense was hot cold and not consistent enough, add a year of experience under their belts, it's a different situation. Patriots have a lot of question marks on the mound, with almost a complete makeover this past offseason. Some high quality transfers in Nick Wilson and River Ridings could be difference makers, to go along with arguably one of the best Friday night guys in the country, Ryan Johnson. If he can take care of Friday nights, it is going to be hard for this squad to lose a series on the weekend.

New year, same expectation. Can East Carolina get over the hump and get Cliff Godwin to Omaha? Pirates have almost smelled Omaha too many times , and they have the team to make a serious push in 2024. Last year's Pirates were considered young and susceptible to lose the AAC crown, but nope they did it again winning the title and making a regional berth. Safe to assume there is no such thing as a rebuilding year in Greenville. Trey Yesavage will be an animal on the mound with plenty of offensive star power at the plate. Jenkins-Cowart, Starling, Cunningham and more. Lots to like about the 2024 Pirates. #GetGodwinToOmaha

Skylar Meade is building something in Troy, Alabama. Trojans finished top 50 in RPI a year ago and just got in the postseason in Tuscaloosa regional. Troy returns a dog in Grayson Stewart who will kick things off on Friday nights. They have plenty of starting options for Saturdays and Sundays, to go along with a decent bullpen. Offensively, this will be a fun team to watch. Reigning Sun Belt POTY Shane Lewis is back after surprisingly, turning down the draft. The lineup as a whole will be super deep including Tremayne Cobb who should have a massive year and will them to a lot of wins.

Don't let the 'Eaters get hot. Anteaters got HOSED last year by the committee after missing the postseason as the 'first team out'. Wouldn't be surprised if they have a John Cohen headshot photo with devil horns and a mustache drawn on it up in the clubhouse. UC Irvine returns whole entire lineup plus bench/platoon players. EVERYONE. A team that hit .301 a year ago good for 36th in the country along with their Top 10 OBP at .424. Add another year of old age weight gain, the power numbers should increase. Pitching returns about 50% of production that was top 25 in era last season. Don't forget, Anteaters rolled into Phoenix last year and kicked Arizona State's ass en route to a sweep. 2024 is REVENGE season for Irvine. Big West should be a gauntlet between Irvine, Santa Barbara, Northridge, and UC San Diego. Buckle up.

Coastal Carolina comes off another successful season hosting a regional in Conway. They should be in contention for another Sun Belt title. They return A TON of talent on the offensive side of the plate. Caden Bodine, Zack Beach and Derek Bender all combined for nearly 50 HRs a season ago. Their pitching issues will continue into 2024 as they return experience, but no high end talent. Another year ahead where teams need to score 15 to beat the Chants and Coastal needs to give up less than 10.

There's not much to say for this Northeastern squad. Loaded is only word to describe them. It is CAA title or bust for the Huskies. They return lots of star power from 2023 squad that made a regional appearance at Wake Forest. Number 8 overall prospect Mike Sirota leads the way. Northeastern has a stable of arms, and a deep lineup. Their pitching doesn't walk people, and their lineup has a healthy balance of power and on-base. Pretty good recipe for success in college baseball.

When you think of Southern Miss, you think postseason in Hattiesburg. Scott Berry set off into the sunset as the winningest coach all-time at Southern Miss. The 2024 Golden Eagles squad has a lot of replacing to do. Program staples Danny Lynch, Dustin Dickerson, and Tanner Hall are all no longer in Baseburg. 2024 will kick off Coach "Oz" Ostrander's career as the head skipper. Offensively, Southern Miss returns Slade Wilks (20 HRs), Carson Paetow and a few others. Rhody transfer Billy Butler will be a massive addition to replace some of the power lost. On the mound, Southern Miss will always perform with Oz still in the program. Eagles return almost everyone outside of Tanner Hall. If they figure it out offensively, this team will be competing for a Sun Belt title, at minimum.

Another west coast team finds its way into the Top 10. Tritons won the Big West title in 2023 and in a normal year that would have secured them a spot in regionals, but they were still ineligible due to DII transition. UC San Diego has whole entire staff back. A talented staff to say the least (4.44 era in 2023). They have the #84 prospect Ryan Forcucci setting the tone on Friday nights. He has top tier stuff. Closer Izaak Martinez is back. When you win the Big West, and return 90% of staff, expectations should be pretty high. Offensively, they lose about 50% of HR production, but have some servicable pieces that will replace. If hitting shows up, this team's ceiling is high.

"Could this finally be the year that UNCW makes a Super Regional? The people have been asking, and now we have answers. The Seahawks are going to be one of the most complete teams across the mid-major land, as they return pretty much their whole starting lineup, and their top 2 weekend arms. The most intruiging part of this team is their bullpen. They will go as far as their bullpen takes them. The loss of closer, Brett Banks, and 2nd best reliever Ethan Chenault, will be big shoes to fill for UNCW... BUT the potential is there for the bullpen. They have a slew of guys of all shapes and sizes and arm angles. They will mix and match you to death. All signs point up for Coach Hood and the hawks of the sea. "

"Last season was Syc for the Sycamores of Indiana State. They had a Top 10 RPI, hosted the legendary Terre Haute regional, and advanced to a Super Regional, where they eventually lost to the hottest team in the nation at the time, TCU. Although they have to replace all 3 weekend starters, this team does return a good bit of arms they trust out of the 'pen. Pair that with a very experienced and proven lineup, this team should be favorites to win the MVC again this year. If they returned 1 of their weekend rotation guys from last year, this is a no-brainer Top 10 mid-major team in the country. We just want to use the eyeball test on them the first few weekends before we slide them in. "

The Matadors were an extra inning loss to Fullerton away from winning the Big West title by tiebreaker as UCSD was ineligible due to reclassification. Northridge returns a lot for the 2024 campaign. They have a Friday Night ace returning (Thomas Bainton) and a super talented Sunday arm (Ryan Wentz) back as well. Matadors also have closer back. Pretty good framework to build off of. Offensively, they lose a little but not much as 7/9 starters return. For us, Northridge is a mature, well-balanced team that showed lots of promise and should only improve in 2024. Big West title race will be fun as hell to follow.

"Here is another CAA darling that pops off the page as a team who returns a bunch of guys from a very successful year before. The Cougs have one of the best two-way guys in the nation, Cole Matthis, who was their leading hitter and pitcher last season. Nowaday's it feels like a miracle that he is still at College of Charleston and not poached away by an ACC or SEC team. But that shows what kind of culture this program has. Their non-conference schedule this season has a lot of winnable games before the guantlet of the CAA starts. Look for this team to win a lot of games and compete for a CAA title. "

"Coming off of a MWC Title, and a regional appearance at Stanford, the Spartans are one of the oldest teams in college baseball. Their roster is filled with salty vets who play with a type of team chemistry you barely see in today's game. They will be a team who can win games in a lot of different ways, and will rarely beat themselves with errors, bad baserunning, or walks on the mound. Usually when a team gets a taste for the postseason and return a majority of their roster the next season, they end up right back in the postseason. "

The Lopes had some lofty expectations in 2023 after a LOUD opening weekend including an electric win over Tennessee to kick off the season. A mid season collapse hurt their at-large chances, but they still found a way to win the WAC regular season title. They lose 1st rdr Jacob Wilson and Homer Bush but return everyone else offensively. Should be a strong enough lineup to run it back in the WAC. Pitching wise, they have an ace leading the way in Daniel Avitia, and about 50% of production returning. Will probably take some time for them to figure out rotation and bullpen roles. At the end of the day,Grand Canyon should be in the postseason mix come May.

The Boro Boys nearly reached the pinnacle of success in 2022, hosting a regional at home. Georgia Southern showed the college baseball world how hard it is to sustain success as a mid-major year in and year out. Eagles finished 2 games under .500 last season, coming off hosting that regional. Eagles should have their sights set high this year with their entire weekend rotation back and a good chunk of the pen back as well. Losing closer Jay Thompson hurts, but they have replacements ready to go. Offensively, it will be interesting... They lose a lot of major program vets. A few decent portal additions will help, but at the end of the day, the pitching should carry this team.

Winning Standard. Simple as that. UConn continues to perform year in and year out no matter the circumstances. Yeah they play in a shitty conference called the Big East, but they win out of conference too. Huskies return a ton offensively and on the mound. They will be better in 2024 on the mound than the 2023 squad that won 44 games. They have 2 concrete weekend starters with a 3rd one winning the job this fall/winter. Offensively, they lose the Albino Rhino Ben Huber, but return about 7-8 starters. Huskies always have had a really good balance of power and average and they return most of both. Big East runs through Storrs and expect this team to improve over the course of the season and be a regional contender.

South Florida returns a FULL lineup, enough to compete for 2nd in the AAC. We all know the American runs through Greenville and smart enough to know, no one is changing that anytime soon. With that said, Eric Snow and Bobby Boser could be one of the best MIF tandems in the AAC and even in the state of Florida. On the bump, the Bulls have a weird mix of experience and talent. They have 3 qualified starters, and a bullpen full of potential. If the pitching gets going, they should beat out UTSA, Rice, FAU and the rest of the pack for 2nd. This team could also easily end up being terrible and disappoint yet again, but the ceiling is high enough to have hope.

The 2nd San Diego based team in the Top 25, Toreros return everyone from their largely disappointing 2023 season. They finished 4th in the West Coast, but 1 game under .500 overall. Normally, it would be safe to say that is pathetic for a program with such high expectations, but they opened 2023 season with Nebraska, Oregon, Oregon State and TCU. And guess what? They did it to themselves again in 2024 with series at Texas,Dallas Baptist and Michigan and at home vs Arizona. Offensively they have everything they need to compete for a WCC title. On the mound, they return their ace James Sashin and plenty of support behind him. First month will tell us a lot if its a rerun or improvement.

"As far as mid-major baseball goes this might be the darkest of dark horses for 2024. There is a lot to like about the Purple Aces squad. You look at their roster and its 5th year senior followed by 6th year senior followed by JUCO stud. This team is old and salty as hell. They return their top 2 arms from last year and practically their whole starting lineup. This is the type of team you don't want to play early in the year because team chemistry is already at an all-time high and these older guys have been taking ""Intro to Cooking"" online classes since August, just waiting for the start of baseball season. They open up with Oral Roberts, which should be a fun one to watch. "

One of the most exciting teams to follow over the last few years under Justin Haire's watch, Campbell finds themselves back in the Top 25, but in a different light. It's going to be hard for this team to replicate their success as they enter new waters with less established talent in the cupboard, joining the CAA. Camels lost a lot at the plate and on the mound. They don't have their typical 1st rd talent on Friday nights, but do have fun pieces that can develop. Expect them to face adversity starting week one with Santa Barbara coming to town and slowly grow as season rolls on. Expect this to be a strong team in May, but February and March could see some growing pains.

If you have followed college baseball long enough, you would know that Jacksonville always randomly pumps out 1st round talent. Lately, that hasn't been the case, but the tide is turning again. Offensively, JU will be in good hands with a veteran lineup and some starpower. If guys 5-9 in the lineup can just produce a little bit more, the success will come. On the mound, its top heavy meaning they have 2 studs leading the rotation. One of them, Evan Chrest, should be a workhorse and strong candidate for ASUN Pitcher of the Year. He got a Team USA invite this past summer. Jacksonville should compete with FGCU and possibly Lipscomb for ASUN title with Liberty off to the CUSA.

"We all know about the slugfests that take place during Old Dominion games over the past 5 years, and you should expect about the same this season. Their offense reloads again, lead by one of the most intimidating hitters in the country, Senior Jake Ticer, who could easily hit 20+ homers this year. But what is great to see is their pitching staff seems to be coming into a solid weekend staff, followed by a couple of reliable dudes out of the bullpen. Remember, this team hosted a regional (at South Carolina) back in 2021, and if everything falls into place, could potentially win the Sun Belt this year with the talent they have. "

"Although this is not the same talent the 2008 National Championship team possessed, this Bulldogs squad is another west coast team filled with older talent. Plus their most talented player on the team is Soph. Murf Grey who won Freshman of the Year for the MWC and boy is he electric on the field. When you mix in depth on the mound, and experience on offense, that's a formula to win a lot of games. It will be fun to follow the MWC this year as the whole conference is filled with teams like SJSU and Fresno St, who have a ton of upper- classmen filling out the lineup cards. "

USC Upstate was 2 innings away from sweeping Campbell and winning the Big South regular season title on the last weekend of the 2023 regular season. They return about 7-8 everyday starters from that squad. Not a ton of juice, but some solid talent 1-9. Experience will play a big role in the outcome of their 2024 season. On the mound, they lose 2 weekened starters but have a ton of depth returning including stud closer Jake Cubbler (sub 2.00 era). Also, they have about 2-3 transfers from P5 schools that should replace the losses fairly well. Upstate should win the Big South conference with ease as Campbell has moved to the CAA. Spartans open up the season at home vs Kentucky, should be a great test.