Baseball season starts tomorrow!! And to mark the occasion, the Big Ten Baseball Coaches Poll was released Thursday, and a familiar name was at the top. Nebraska was picked to defend its crown and repeat as Big Ten Champions.

The Huskers will see projected runner up Michigan to open conference play March 25-27. Iowa is listed as the number 3 team, while last years runner up, Maryland, comes in at 4. Ohio State and Indiana round out the top 6, which is all that is released in the poll.

Players to Watch

The conference also releases a list of Players to Watch, picking 3 players from each team to highlight. For Nebraska it listed senior starting pitchers Kyle Perry and Shay Schanaman, and sophomore third baseman Max Anderson.

Max Anderson is the reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year, and was tabbed a Freshman All-American by multiple publications. He hit .332 for the season and had 7 home runs and 32 RBIs in 45 games.

Kyle Perry comes off a season where he returned from injury to post a 2-0 record and 3.48 ERA. He started some of the biggest games for Nebraska down the stretch, capping it off with 7 strikeouts in 4.1 innings in the decisive game 7 in the Fayetteville regional.

Shay Schanaman was 5-2 with a 5.08 ERA in 2021. He had 72 strikeouts in 67.1 innings. Schanaman had 2 games of 10 strikeouts, with his best outing being a 7.1 inning, 10 strikeout performance vs Minnesota.