McNeese baseball recruiting class named among top in nation

From Staff Reports

The Contraband

TUCSON, Ariz. – The McNeese State baseball team continues to make strides towards championship gold as the program's 2015-2016 recruiting class was among those recognized as top in the nation according to Collegiate Baseball Magazine, who released its annual class rankings on Tuesday. 

The Cowboys, who were ranked among the Top 100 schools, joined Northwestern State and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as the only Southland Conference programs to make the list while McNeese joined LSU, UL-Lafayette, Tulane and Northwestern State as the only schools from Louisiana to be recognized in the rankings.

"This is a great honor for McNeese and our baseball program to be recognized by such a respected organization in Collegiate Baseball," said McNeese head coach Justin Hill. "Coach (Cory) Barton deserves the majority of the credit, as he has been working on this class since we got the job in July of 2013."

McNeese's 11-player high school class consists of RHP/INF Aiden Anderson (Orange, Texas), RHP/C Grant Anderson (Orange, Texas), 1B Addison Armand (Lake Charles, LA), OF/IF Jake Cochran (Moss Bluff, LA), C Dustin Duhon (Moss Bluff, LA), SS Nate Fisbeck (The Woodlands, Texas), LHP Bryan King (Parker, CO), RHP Brennon Moore (Orange, Texas), OF/RHP Zach Rider (Kinder, LA), OF Shane Selman (Lake Charles, LA), OF Jacob Stracner (Moss Bluff, LA).

The Cowboys also signed five of the top junior college student-athletes in the country including IF Will Fox (Montgomery, Texas/McClennan CC), RHP Hayden Guidry (Orange, Texas/LSU-E), C/1B Todd Hinkley (Liberty, MO/Jefferson College), RHP Mason Mize (Montgomery, Texas/Wharton County Junior College), OF Eric Peterson (Moss Bluff, LA/Seminole CC).

Collegiate Baseball, who is in its 33rd consecutive season of rating college recruiting classes, determine the rankings based on athletes who came to school this fall as points are awarded to drafted players and the round they are chosen, All-Americans, All-State selections and All-Conference picks. Collegiate Baseball also gives points for Conference Players of The Year, State Players of The Year and National Players of The Year.

Florida landed the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation followed by South Carolina, Mississippi State, Georgia Tech and Vanderbilt, who rounded out the top five.

"It's humbling to see McNeese along side some of the most respected baseball programs in the country," said Hill. "We certainly like the group we have, and we are excited to begin fall practice very soon."

McNeese will begin fall drills on Tuesday, Sept. 29 and is slated to have 13 intrasquad practices before the Cowboys take part in the annual Fall World Series scheduled for Nov. 5-7.