The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association announced their 2023 Preseason All-America teams Thursday afternoon with Ole Miss’ Jacob Gonzalez and Hunter Elliott both earning recognition from the group. Gonzalez was named as the lone shortstop on the First Team while Elliott was one of five starting pitchers on the Second Team.
For Gonzalez, this is his fifth Preseason All-America honor of 2023 as he was also named to lists by Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball News, D1Baseball, and Perfect Game. In addition to his All-America honors, Gonzalez has been named the No. 3 MLB prospect in all of college baseball by D1Baseball and the No. 5 MLB Draft prospect by MLB Pipeline heading into the 2023 season.
Elliott earns his fourth Preseason All-America honor, making lists produced by Collegiate Baseball News, D1Baseball, and Perfect Game. Perfect Game ranked him No. 31 in their Top-100 Sophomores list and D1Baseball ranked him No. 18 in their Top 2024 MLB Draft SEC Prospects list.
Gonzalez led Ole Miss in runs scored (73) and walks (50) during their National Championship run, while also starting every game at shortstop for the Rebels. He finished second on the team in RBI (52), total bases (135), and home runs (18).
The Glendora, California native put together a phenomenal postseason, scoring at least one run in every game of both the Coral Gables Regional and the Hattiesburg Super Regional. He went 3-for-4 with a solo home run that sparked the scoring for the Rebels in the National Title clinching game against Oklahoma in the College World Series Final.
Elliott was one of the best freshmen in the country in 2022, earning Freshman All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball News, Perfect Game, and D1Baseball. He was also named to the All-SEC Freshman Team and the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team at the end of the season. Elliott finished third in the SEC in ERA with a 2.70 and was sixth in the conference in total strikeouts with 102 in his first season.
In all, there are 44 different schools and 18 Division I conferences represented on the 2023 dream team, which has 20-plus schools ranked in various preseason polls.
Ole Miss will open their 2023 campaign on February 17 against Delaware with the first of a three-game series against the Blue Hens. First pitch is set for 4:00 p.m. at Oxford-University Stadium.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports
