LSU Baseball Skyrockets Up Recruiting Rankings, Moves Into Top-Five for 2026 Season

BATON ROUGE, La. – LSU is No. 3 in the Baseball America Top 25 recruiting rankings for the 2026 season that were released on Friday.

Peter Flaherty of Baseball America writes:

LSU is one of very few programs—perhaps the only program—that is flat-out dominant across every facet of the game. Coach Jay Johnson and his staff routinely put together premier portal and recruiting classes and do an outstanding job of developing the talent they bring in.

The result? Two national championships in the last three seasons. Johnson has cultivated an environment in which there is an unbelievable amount of success at both the team and individual level, and that figures to continue so long as he’s at the helm.

Flaherty cites catcher Omar Serna Jr., outfielder William Patrick, right-hander Marcos Paz and right-hander Reagan Ricken as four of the top players in LSU’s elite recruiting class.

Serna Jr., a product of Lutheran South Academy in Houston, Texas, was rated as the nation’s No. 4 catcher and the No. 1 catcher in the state of Texas by Perfect Game.

Serna Jr., who was No. 132 on the MLB.com list of overall Top Prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft, hit .465 as a high school junior in 2024 with eight homers, 35 RBI and an .851 slugging percentage.

Patrick, a native of Monroe, La., who played at St. Frederick High School, was rated No. 26 among the nation’s best outfielders by Perfect Game. He was also ranked by Perfect Game as the No. 1 outfielder and the No. 2 overall player in the state of Louisiana.

Patrick, rated No. 90 on the MLB.com list of the overall Top 100 Prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft, batted .472 as a high school senior with a .607 on-base percentage and a 1.460 on-base plus slugging percentage.

He collected five homers, 13 doubles, three triples, 23 RBI, 44 runs and 27 stolen bases.

Paz, a product of Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas, was rated No. 22 among the nation’s best right-handed pitchers and No. 3 among the best right-handers in the state of Texas by Perfect Game.

LSU Tigers Baseball: Miguel Sine Jr. — Courtesy of Miguel Sine's Instagram.

Paz was ranked No. 90 on the MLB.com list of the overall Top 100 Prospects for the 2025 MLB Draft.

Ricken, a product of Great Oak High School in Temecula, Calif., was rated by ESPN as the No. 121 overall prospect in the nation for the 2025 MLB Draft. An excellent athlete who also played quarterback for the Great Oak High football team, Ricken has a fastball that has reached 97 mph.

He was ranked by Perfect Game as the No. 4 right-handed pitcher in the state of California and the No. 13 right-hander in the nation.

All of LSU’s newcomers joined the returning players in August to begin preparation for the 2026 season. The Tigers have been engaged in conditioning drills and individual workouts, and they begin their six-week, full-squad fall practice period on Thursday, October 9.

LSU’s 2026 season opens on Friday, February 13, when the reigning National Champions play host to Milwaukee in Alex Box Stadium, Skip Bertman Field.

LSU Tigers Baseball: Brady Ebel. — Courtesy of Brady Ebel's Instagram.

Baseball America Top 25 Recruiting Classes for 2026 Season
1. Texas
2. Tennessee
3. LSU
4. Virginia
5. Arkansas
6. Mississippi State
7. Vanderbilt
8. Wake Forest
9. Alabama
10. Auburn
11. Texas A&M
12. Florida
13. TCU
14. Stanford
15. Oklahoma State
16. Miami (Fla.)
17. UCLA
18. Oklahoma
19. Ole Miss
20. Oregon
21. Georgia
22. Arizona
23. Georgia Tech
24. Maryland
25. Florida State

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