Coming off a season in which three teams advanced to the NCAA College World Series, the Big 12 is the only conference with four squads ranked in the preseason top 10 by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

TCU checks in at No. 2 behind 2014 national champion Vanderbilt, while Oklahoma State ranks fifth. Texas sits at No. 7 with Texas Tech at No. 9.

TCU, Texas and Texas Tech advanced to Omaha’s field of eight last season - tying a Big 12 record for most teams in the event by the conference in one year. All four preseason top 10 teams closed out 2014 ranked in the top 10 of the four national polls. The Big 12 finished 2014 with the second-best conference RPI in the nation for the third time in league history (2007 & 2005). Six teams (67 percent) finished in the top 50 with four league teams in the top 20 for just the third time.

Collegiate Baseball also recently announced its preseason Louisville Slugger All-America selections with three Big 12 players earning first team recognition - TCU’s Riley Ferrell and Preston Morrison along with Texas Tech’s Eric Gutierrez. Ferrell was tabbed the Preseason Player of the Year.

Ferrell is coming off a spectacular sophomore campaign that saw him set the single-season school record with 15 saves. He finished the season with a 3-1 record to go along with a 0.79 ERA in 31 appearances. Ferrell ranked fourth on the team with 70 strikeouts in just 45.1 innings pitched. Morrison, the reigning Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, went 9-4 in 18 starts with a miniscule 1.32 ERA in 129.1 innings pitched a season ago. Along the way, he racked up 95 strikeouts and limited opponents to a .197 batting average against. Gutierrez led the Big 12 last season in home runs (12) and RBI (58) while batting .302 in 66 games with 18 doubles, .539 slugging percentage and .399 on-base percentage. In addition, Gutierrez led the country among all underclassmen (freshmen and sophomore) in both homers and RBI.

The Big 12 baseball season begins on February 13.