Four LSU Baseball Players Named Preseason All Americans

As LSU continues preparations for the 2022 season, the preseason accolades continue to roll in.

On Monday, four Tigers were named to Baseball America's Preseason All-American team, with outfielder Dylan Crews and infielder Jacob Berry earning first-team nods. In addition, first baseman Tre Morgan and infielder Cade Doughty earned second-team honors following their 2021 seasons.

It's no secret LSU enters the 2022 campaign with plenty of expectations considering the offensive potential of this group. Crews, Berry, Morgan, Doughty and Gavin Dugas is enough bat talent to put a good scare in any opposing pitching staff and it's pretty clear all are poised for major jumps this season with Jay Johnson coming in.

Crews and Morgan are coming off freshman All-American seasons for the Tigers a year ago and are pillars of this program for the next few seasons. Crews batted .362 (89-for-246) in 2021 with 18 homers, 42 RBI, 64 runs scored and 12 stolen bases while Morgan batted .357 (89-for-249) in 2021 with six homers, 42 RBI, 64 runs scored and was No. 4 in the SEC in batting average.

Berry followed Johnson from Arizona to LSU and was one of the best hitters in the country during his freshman season in 2021. He batted .352 with team highs of 17 homers and 70 RBI for Arizona last season, earning Co-Freshman of the Year honors for his performance.

Berry also comes with the unique experience as being the only offensive player who was familiar with Johnson as a coach and has helped bridge the gap with the current players and the new coaching style.

"Be ready to work. Coach Johnson's one of the hardest working coaches in the country and he's gonna push us along the way and get everything he can out of us this year," Berry said. "He inherited a really great offense with a lot of offensive tools and I think it's gonna be really interesting. That lineup might flip forward and backward, it doesn't matter because we're gonna put runs on the board."

As for Doughty, he's entering a junior season where Johnson himself believes isn't being talked about enough. Doughty has dramatically improved his defense in the infield and batted .308 (70-for-227) for LSU in 2021 with 13 homers and 55 RBI.

This is a core offense that can be truly special this season and will be very entertaining to see just how far this group can go with Omaha very much on the minds of everyone in the program.