IRVING, Texas - With the start of college baseball inching closer and closer, Conference USA announced its 2015 preseason baseball awards on Wednesday morning, as chosen by the league's 12 head coaches.

LA Tech junior shortstop Taylor Love was selected to the 14-member preseason All-Conference USA team after leading the Bulldogs in almost every offensive category last season, including batting average (.320), hits (56), runs (24), doubles (12) and stolen bases (11). Love represents the Bulldogs as one of five league infielders chosen for the preseason team, while LA Tech was chosen to finish 12th in the league standings.

Rice senior catcher John Clay Reeves was chosen as the preseason Player of the Year, while Rice junior left-hander Blake Fox was named the preseason Pitcher of the Year. Preseason No. 13 Rice was chosen as the favorite to win the league's championship with all 12 first place votes.

C-USA's 20th baseball season gets underway on Friday, Feb. 13. The conference tournament is scheduled for May 20-24 in Hattiesburg, Miss. C-USA's baseball schools have produced 75 NCAA appearances and 10 College World Series teams over the past 19 seasons.

Season tickets for the upcoming season are available now and can be purchased by calling the LA Tech Ticket Office at 318-257-3631, emailing techtickets@latech.edu or logging on to https://oss.ticketmaster.com/aps/latech/EN/buy/browse. The deadline to renew season tickets is Monday, Feb. 9. All current season ticket holders' seats will be held from now until the renewal deadline on Feb. 9.

Tickets are also available for the inaugural LA Tech Baseball First Pitch Dinner at 7 p.m. this Saturday, Jan. 31 at Squire Creek Country Club. The event is open to the public and tickets are on sale now for $25. Tickets can be purchased through the LA Tech Baseball office by contacting J.D. Hulse at 404-915-3667.

For complete coverage of Bulldog Baseball, please follow @LATechBSB on Twitter or visit the official home of Louisiana Tech Athletics at LATechSports.com.

2015 PRESEASON BASEBALL AWARDS

(as selected by C-USA's head coaches)

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH

Rice (12)

FIU

Old Dominion

Southern Miss

UTSA

Florida Atlantic

UAB

Middle Tennessee

WKU

Marshall

Charlotte

Louisiana Tech

(first place votes in parentheses)

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

John Clay Reeves, Rice (Senior, Catcher)

PITCHER OF THE YEAR

Blake Fox, Rice (Junior, Left-hander)

ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM

P Blake Fox Jr. Rice

P Alex Luna Sr. UAB

P Chris Mourelle So. FIU

RP Matt Ditman Jr. Rice

C John Clay Reeves Sr. Rice

IF Josh Anderson Sr. FIU

IF Ryan Church Sr. WKU

IF P.J. Higgins Jr. Old Dominion

IF Taylor Love Jr. Louisiana Tech

IF Stephen Kerr So. Florida Atlantic

OF Jared Allen Sr. Middle Tennessee

OF Brendon Sanger Jr. Florida Atlantic

OF Nick Walker So. Old Dominion

DH/UT Matt Durst Sr. Southern Miss