<p>The preseason college baseball polls have been released, and for the first time in years, UCLA is ranked highly. The Bruins are ranked No. 13 by Baseball America and No. 26 by Collegiate Baseball.
<br/>The Bruins have not been in the top 15 since 2000, when they went to a super regional and finished the season at No. 15.
<br/>?(The ranking) is recognition (of) a lot of hard work from a lot of players,? UCLA baseball coach John Savage said. ?It goes to show you that the players have worked hard and the coaches have worked hard on the recruiting side of it. We?re still in the process of building the program.?
<br/>Savage, entering his third season as the Bruins? coach, inherited a program that was in rebuilding mode after 2004, when former coach Gary Adams retired and nearly every significant contributor to that NCAA Tournament team left either to graduation or the MLB Draft.
<br/>But Savage has put together some deep and talented recruiting classes; the one which included this year?s freshmen was also ranked No. 13 by Baseball America. That, combined with a berth in the NCAA Regionals in 2006, has led to UCLA?s current national recognition.
<br/>?It helps with recruiting, but last year?s success on the field helps the most,? Savage said. ?The fun part is you?ve got to go out and see where you?re at. When the season starts, the rankings don?t mean a thing.?<br/>What makes the preseason ranking even more surprising is that UCLA lost a lot of players from last year?s team. The Bruins had a record 12 players drafted in June.<br/>?A majority of our players are sophomores and freshman,? Savage said. ?If you really look at the classes, we have very few juniors and seniors. We?re still young. We?re still learning.?<br/>Unlike the 2004 season, when the nine players were drafted after the Bruins made the tournament, this year?s team has six key players who were freshmen a year ago returning to the lineup. <br/>Shortstop Brandon Crawford played on the U.S. National Team over the summer, third baseman Jermaine Curtis led the team in batting average last year (.336), and catcher Ryan Babineau won Freshman All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball.<br/>?They?re much stronger. More experienced. Had great summers, so the expectations (are) on them. We know that those guys have to get better,? Savage said.<br/>On the mound, Savage will be looking for young pitchers to replace Dave Huff and Hector Ambriz, who were the team?s top two starting pitchers a year ago and were both drafted. Savage said highly recruited high school All-American Charles Brewer will be one of the team?s starting pitchers this year, and among players battling for the other spots in the starting rotation include Tyson Brummett, Brendan Lafferty, Jason Novak and Paul Schmidt.<br/>UCLA?s season begins on Feb. 2 with a three-game series at home against No. 23 Winthrop.</p><br><br><a href='; target='_blank'>;