Gators ranked No. 24 in preseason poll

The first preseason college baseball poll was released on Thursday afternoon. After losing plenty of talent from last year’s team following a third-straight trip to the College World Series, the Gators will start the 2013 season ranked No. 24 in the country.

It is the fifth-straight season the Gators have been ranked in the preseason poll during the six-year tenure of head coach Kevin O’Sullivan.

There are six Southeastern Conference teams ahead of Florida in the poll — Arkansas at No. 1, Vanderbilt at No. 3, LSU at No. 4, South Carolina at No. 7, Kentucky at No. 8 and Mississippi State at No. 13.

The Gators entered last season as the preseason No. 1 team in the country and earned the No. 1 seed in the postseason NCAA Tournament.