BATON ROUGE - The LSU baseball team is once again ranked atop the 2026 Perfect Game Baseball preseason poll as the start of their season draws closer.

The latest ranking is the second time in four seasons that Jay Johnson's Tigers earned the top spot of a preseason poll and comes on the heels of the program's second national title in three years.

Last year, the Tigers won the program's eighth national championship after beginning the season ranked No. 2.

LSU will start the 2026 season on February 13 in the afternoon against Milwaukee at Alex Box Stadium.

The Tigers will return seven returning position players with starting experience from last season's championship team, and they will welcome 20 newcomers to the program, including eleven transfer players.

“We’re always very intentional about what we do, how we do it, and then helping players take the next step forward,” Johnson said during the fall. “What I like so far is how our returning players, like Derek Curiel, Jake Brown, Steven Milam, Chris Stanfield, those guys are leading this team. Zac Cowan, Casan Evans, Cade Arrambide, William Schmidt – there are so many guys returning that played a part in the 2025 National Championship, and it’s given us a really good foundation of how to work, and how we roll."

LSU is one of nine Southeastern Conference teams appearing in the Perfect Game 2026 preseason Top 25, along with No. 3 Tennessee, No. 4 Arkansas, No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 8 Texas, No. 10 Auburn, No. 12 Florida, No. 15 Georgia and No. 19 Vanderbilt.

2026 Perfect Game Baseball Preseason Poll

Rank     Team

1            LSU

2            Georgia Tech

3            Tennessee

4            Arkansas

5            UCLA

6            Mississippi State

7            Oregon State

8            Texas

9            Florida State

10          Auburn

11          TCU

12          Florida

13          Oregon

14          Virginia

15          Georgia

16          Louisville

17          Coastal Carolina

18          North Carolina

19          Vanderbilt

20          Clemson

21          UC Santa Barbara

22          NC State

23          Southern Miss

24          Miami

25          East Carolina