BATON ROUGE — LSU baseball is racking up the expectations ahead of their 2023 season with a team that's expected to make a significant run at Omaha and the College World Series.

Perfect Game is the latest preseason poll to tab the Tigers as the No. 1 team in the preseason joining Collegiate Baseball with LSU atop their rankings.

Junior centerfielder Dylan Crews was also named Perfect Game’s Preseason Player of the Year in the release.

The Tigers will begin reporting back to campus next week, as full-squad preseason practice begins on Jan. 27. The 2023 season starts on Feb. 17, when LSU plays host to Western Michigan in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

LSU returns six position players that started in a significant number of the Tigers’ 62 games last season, including Crews, the 2022 SEC Co-Player of the Year and a consensus first-team All-American last season.

Crews, also named Collegiate Baseball’s 2023 Preseason Player of the Year, batted .349 last season with 11 doubles, four triples, 22 homers, 72 RBI and 73 runs. The Tigers’ centerfielder was named a semifinalist last season for the Golden Spikes Award and for the Dick Howser National Player of the Year Award.

Perfect Game 2023 Preseason Top 25

1. LSU (40-22)
2. Tennessee (57-9)
3. Stanford (47-18)
4. Arkansas (46-21)
5. Wake Forest (41-19-1)
6. Ole Miss (42-23)
7. Louisville (42-21-1)
8. Florida (42-24)
9. Miami (40-20)
10. Texas A&M (44-20)
11. Vanderbilt (39-23)
12. UCLA (40-24)
13. North Carolina (42-22)
14. TCU (38-22)
15. Virginia Tech (45-14)
16. Texas Tech (39-22)
17. Auburn (43-22)
18. Oklahoma State (42-22)
19. Virginia (39-19)
20. Oregon (36-25)
21. NC State (36-21)
22. Maryland (48-14)
23. Oregon State (48-18)
24. Texas (47-22)
25. Southern Miss (47-19)