{"id":4949,"date":"2009-01-21T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/sports\/lbsu-softball-ranked-no-24-by-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2009-01-21T07:05:00","modified_gmt":"2009-01-21T07:05:00","slug":"lbsu-softball-ranked-no-24-by-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/lbsu-softball-ranked-no-24-by-usa-today","title":{"rendered":"LBSU Softball Ranked No. 24 By USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

From LBSU reports<\/span><\/p>\n

The Long Beach State softball team is ranked No. 24 in the 2009 USA Today\/NFCA preseason poll.  <\/span>The 49ers received 108 points, finishing ahead of San Diego State and just behind Western Athletic Conference foe Nevada (157). Florida was tabbed as the favorite with 14 first-place votes and 728 total points and was followed by defending national champion Arizona State (15 first-place votes, 691 points). Rounding out the top five were Alabama (678), UCLA (638) and Texas A&M (553).<\/p>\n

\n

LBSU returns 13 letterwinners from a 2008 squad that finished the campaign with a 40-17 mark, claimed its sixth Big West Conference title and made its 18th NCAA appearance.<\/p>\n

Back in the circle for The Beach will be sophomore All-American pitcher Brooke Turner, who established single-season records in wins (27), shutouts (17) and strikeouts (237) last season.  <\/span>Brooke will be competing against her own records on her way to what could end as one of the most decorated careers in school history.  <\/span>Also returning for the 49ers are all-conference selections Danielle Linke, Jennifer Griffin and Bridgette Pagano.<\/p>\n

Long Beach State will open its season on Feb. 6 against No. 22 Georgia at the Cathedral City Classic.<\/p>\n

2009 USA Today\/NFCA Preseason Poll<\/b><\/p>\n

1.  <\/span>Florida (14)       <\/span> <\/span>728<\/p>\n

2.  <\/span>Arizona State (15)  <\/span>691<\/p>\n

3.  <\/span>Alabama             <\/span>678<\/p>\n

4.  <\/span>UCLA                <\/span>638<\/p>\n

5.  <\/span>Texas A&M           <\/span>553<\/p>\n

6.  <\/span>Louisiana (1)       <\/span>544<\/p>\n

7.  <\/span>Arizona             <\/span>542<\/p>\n

8.  <\/span>Michigan            <\/span>527<\/p>\n

9.  <\/span>Northwestern        <\/span>511<\/p>\n

10. Oklahoma            <\/span>498<\/p>\n

11. Stanford            <\/span>456<\/p>\n

12. Tennessee           <\/span>302<\/p>\n

13. Houston             <\/span>285<\/p>\n

14. Fresno State        <\/span>280<\/p>\n

15. DePaul              <\/span>279<\/p>\n

16. Missouri            <\/span>270<\/p>\n

17. California          <\/span>255<\/p>\n

18. North Carolina      <\/span>222<\/p>\n

19. LSU                 <\/span>210<\/p>\n

20. Virginia Tech       <\/span>201<\/p>\n

21. Washington          <\/span>193<\/p>\n

22. Georgia             <\/span>169<\/p>\n

23. Nevada              <\/span>157<\/p>\n

24. Long Beach State    <\/span>108<\/b><\/p>\n

25. San Diego State     <\/span>99<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 49ers softball team is ranked No. 24 in the 2009 USA Today\/NFCA preseason poll.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-4949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4949"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=4949"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}