HOUSTON - Collegiate Baseball has selected Rice as the nation's fourth-best team in its 2003 preseason rankings, the newspaper announced Monday.
In addition, Owls Steven Herce, Vincent Sinisi, Philip Humber and David Aardsma and San Jose State RHP Matt Durkin have been named preseason All-Americas.
The Owls, 52-14 a year ago, return 15 lettermen from their seventh consecutive conference champions. Rice led the nation in staff earned run average in '02 at 2.79, and seven hurlers return from that staff.
Sinisi and Herce were first-team selections on the CB preseason all-America team, Humber was on the second team, and Aardsma and Durkin were on the third team.
First-baseman Sinisi (.428/11 HR/80 RBI) was the WAC player of the year as a freshman, and pitcher Humber (11-1, 2.77 ERA) was the league's freshman
of the year.
The mention equals the highest preseason ranking ever for the Owls. Rice was also ranked number-four in 1997. That team, led by all-Americas Lance
Berkman and Matt Anderson, was the first Rice squad to advance to the College World Series.
Defending national champion Texas is the newspaper's preseason number-one team, while Houston is ranked 10th.