BATON ROUGE — LSU junior outfielder Daniel Cabrera and sophomore first baseman Cade Beloso were named Thursday to the 2020 SEC Coaches First-Team Preseason All-Conference squad.
The coaches also released their 2020 SEC predicted order of finish, and they selected LSU to place third in the Western Division.
A 2020 Baseball America First-Team Preseason All-American, Cabrera is a career .300 hitter with 30 doubles, four triples, 20 homers and 104 RBI.
A product of Baton Rouge, Cabrera will wear jersey No. 8 this season, the number that is given to the LSU upperclassman who best epitomizes leadership in the Tigers’ program.
He played in 59 games for LSU in 2019, batting .284 with 12 doubles, two triples, 12 homers, 50 RBI and 40 runs. Cabrera batted .315 as a Freshman All-American in 2018 with 18 doubles, two triples, eight homers and 54 RBI. He earned Freshman All-SEC honors, and he finished seventh in the league in doubles and eighth in RBI.
Beloso, a product of River Ridge, La., played in 62 games (58 starts) last season as a freshman, batting .279 (61-for-219) with three doubles, 10 homers, 52 RBI and 30 runs, and he batted .344 (21-for-61) with runners in scoring position.
He was named to the NCAA Baton Rouge Regional All-Tournament team after hitting .375 (3-for-8) with one homer and three RBI. He was also 5-for-15 (.333) in the SEC Tournament with four RBI.
Beloso had two-homer games last season against Ole Miss and California, and he launched a three-run, walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift LSU to a 6-5 win over Army.
2020 SEC Baseball Coaches Preseason All-SEC Team
First Team
C: Casey Opitz, Arkansas
1B: Cade Beloso, LSU*
1B: T.J. Collett, Kentucky*
2B: Justin Foscue, Mississippi State
3B: Austin Martin, Vanderbilt
SS: Casey Martin, Arkansas
OF: Daniel Cabrera, LSU
OF: Alerick Soularie, Tennessee
OF: Heston Kjerstad, Arkansas
DH/UTL: Matt Goodheart, Arkansas
SP: Emerson Hancock, Georgia
SP: Asa Lacy, Texas A&M
RP: Tyler Brown, Vanderbilt
Second Team
C: Ty Duvall, Vanderbilt
1B: Josh Hatcher, Mississippi State*
1B: Rankin Woley, Auburn*
2B: Noah Campbell, South Carolina*
2B: Harrison Ray, Vanderbilt*
2B: Riley King, Georgia*
3B: Tyler Keenan, Ole Miss
SS: Jordan Westburg, Mississippi State
OF: Jud Fabian, Florida
OF: Tyler Gentry, Alabama
OF: Rowdey Jordan, Mississippi State*
OF: Zach DeLoach, Texas A&M*
DH/UTL: Tanner Allen, Mississippi State
SP: Kumar Rocker, Vanderbilt
SP: Tanner Burns, Auburn
RP: Cody Greenhill, Auburn
*Tie (ties are not broken)
2020 SEC Baseball Coaches Preseason Poll
Eastern Division
1. Vanderbilt (9) – 87
2. Florida (3) - 77
3. Georgia (2) – 76
4. Tennessee – 50
5. South Carolina – 48
6. Missouri – 32
7. Kentucky – 22
Western Division
1. Arkansas (5) – 82
2. Mississippi State (4) – 73
T3. LSU (3) – 67
T3. Auburn (2) – 67
5. Texas A&M – 44
6. Ole Miss – 38
7. Alabama – 21
() – First place votes
SEC Champion: Vanderbilt (8), Florida (2), Arkansas (1), Auburn (1), Georgia (1), Mississippi State (1)