Louisville Named Among D1Baseball's 'Next 10' Following Preseason Top 25

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - With the start of the 2025 college baseball season roughly three weeks away, various preseason polls and lists have begun to roll out in advance. Having missed the NCAA Tournament in three of the last four seasons, including the last two, it's understandable that Louisville hasn't been generating much preseason buzz.

While the folks at D1Baseball also believe that the Cardinals are not currently a top-25 squad, they at least think they have to potential to be. After releasing their 2025 Preseason Top 25 Rankings last week, they published their list of the "Next 10" teams - essentially the teams that just missed their preseason poll's cut. Among those 10 teams were the Cards.

"Undoubtedly, the Cardinals had a decent amount of turnover during the offseason, but there’s still enough talent with this team to make a run to the NCAA tournament this spring. ... Louisville looks like a team that will make some serious noise if the newcomers, particularly from an offensive standpoint, make a quick transition," D1Baseball's Kendall Rogers wrote.

Like Rogers mentioned, Louisville lost a fair amount of production from last year's squad. Impact guys such as Gavin Kilen and Isaac Humphrey hit the portal; while others such as Sebastian Gongora, Dylan Hoy and Evan Webster graduated.

That being said, Dan McDonnell does enter his 19th year as the head coach of the Cardinals with plenty of talent. For starters, they bring back their two OPS leaders in outfielders Zion Rose and Eddie King Jr., as well as Collegiate National Team pitchers Tucker Biven and Patrick Forbes.

Additionally, McDonnell broke from his typical stance against the portal and brought in a fair amount of transfers. This includes Third-Team All-American outfielder Garret Pike, and MVC Pitcher of the Year Brennyn Cutts.

Louisville will open up the 20235 season in Arlington, Texas for the Shriners Children's College Showdown at Globe Life Field. The first pitch of the year is scheduled for Friday, February 14 at 8:00 p.m. EST against Texas.

(Photo of Zion Rose: Andrew Nelles - The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK)

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