FORT MYERS, Fla. – FGCU junior pitcher Chris Sale was named First Team Preseason All-American as announced by Baseball America on Friday.

Sale (Lakeland, Fla.), a Preseason All-Conference selection and A-Sun Preseason Pitcher of the Year, enters the 2010 season owning a 9-4 career record with three saves and a 2.94 ERA in 35 appearances. The Eagles’ junior lefthander posted a 2.72 ERA a season ago ranking him second in the Atlantic Sun. Sale ranked 26th in the nation in ERA and 26th in strikeouts (104) in 2009. Sale picked up Louisville Slugger Preseason Second Team All-American honors in addition to preseason Second Team recognition from PING!Baseball. Sale earned Cape Cod League Pitcher of the Year honors over the summer and Baseball America named Sale the top prospect in the Cape Cod League. He also earned First-Team All-Atlantic Sun honors in 2009.

Baseball America annually polls major league scouting directors to vote on the team and make their selections based on performance, talent and professional potential. In the past, the preseason All-America team has been a predictor both of the first round of the draft and of team success. For example, 11 of the 15 college players drafted in the first round last June appeared on Baseball America's preseason All-America list—eight of them on the first team. And for the second year in a row, 11 of last year's preseason All-Americans played for teams that reached the College World Series.

The Atlantic Coast Conference placed 10 players on the team, behind only the SEC with 13. The Big 12 and Conference USA each landed four players on the team, while the Pacific-10, Big West and Big Ten produced two All-Americans apiece. Eight other conferences placed one player apiece on the team: The Atlantic Sun, Big East, Mid-American, Mountain West, Ohio Valley, Southland, Sun Belt and West Coast conferences.

Baseball America First Team All-American Team