State College, Pa., June 19, 2000 - The Penn State baseball team - which closed out the 2000 season with the program's best single-season record at 45-19, an NCAA Regional Championship and a berth in the first NCAA Super Regional in school history - was ranked in the Top 20 of each of the three final national polls released yesterday.

The Nittany Lions were ranked No. 18 in the USA Today Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches Final Top 25 and received a No. 19 ranking in both the Baseball America Top 25 and the Collegiate Baseball Top 30.

The ranking marks the first time Penn State was included in a final poll since the 1974 campaign when it was voted No. 27 nationally in the final Collegiate Baseball Top 30. The team's ranking of No. 18 in the USA Today Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches Final Top 25 marked the program's highest end-of-the-season ranking in any poll since 1963 when it finished fifth overall in the Collegiate Baseball Poll.

Louisiana State, the winner of this year's College World Series, was ranked No. 1 in each of the three polls. College World Series runner-up Stanford followed as a unanimous No. 2 selection in the three polls.

Baseball America
June 19, 2000

USA Today Baseball Weekly/ESPN Coaches Poll
June 19, 2000

Collegiate Baseball
June 19, 2000