COLUMBIA, SC -
South Carolina is ranked No. 2 in the nation in the 2012 Collegiate Baseball Preseason Top 40 as announced on Monday afternoon. The Gamecocks open the 2012 season on Friday, Feb. 17 hosting a three-game series with VMI at Carolina Stadium. South Carolina is the back-to-back defending national champion in NCAA Division I Baseball after winning consecutive titles at the 2010 and 2011 College World Series.
South Carolina is one of six SEC schools to be ranked in the preseason poll. Also ranked is Florida (No. 1), Arkansas (No. 8), LSU (No. 12), Georgia (No. 18) and Vanderbilt (No. 23).
Carolina returns several letterwinners from last year's national championship squad including 2011 All-Americans Matt Price (RHP), Michael Roth (LHP) and Christian Walker (1B). Roth, a consensus All-American and CollegeBaseballInsider.com's National Player of the Year in 2011, went 14-3 last year while posting a 1.06 ERA in 145.0 innings of work. Price was also a consensus All-American in 2011 and a finalist for the 2011 NCBWA Stopper of the Year award. He earned first-team All-SEC honors and was on the College World Series All-Tournament Team. One of the nation's top closers in 2011, Price went 7-3 with a 1.83 ERA along with 20 saves in 59.0 innings pitched. A first-team All-SEC selection, opponents hit just .213 against him as he compiled 75 strikeouts. Price is looking to begin the 2012 season in the weekend rotation. Walker earned third-team All-America honors last year from Baseball America. He was the team's leading hitter in the 2011 season with a .358 average (97-for-271) along with 21 doubles, a triple, 10 homers and 62 RBI. A second-team All-SEC selection, Walker would go on to earn College World Series All-Tournament Team honors after playing the entire CWS Championship Series with a broken hamate bone in his left wrist.
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