McLain Named Unanimous First Team Preseason All-American

LOS ANGELES – UCLA junior shortstop Matt McLain earned consensus First Team Preseason All-America status on Monday morning with the announcement of Baseball America's Preseason All-America teams.

McLain has now been named the First Team shortstop in Preseason All-America teams from Baseball America, D1Baseball, Perfect Game, and Collegiate Baseball.

Baseball America's team has the unique characteristic of being voted on by major league organizations' scouting departments.

McLain is coming off a breakout sophomore campaign that earned him Second Team All-America honors. He led the team in a number of offensive categories, including batting average (.397), slugging (.621), RBIs (19), hits (23), home runs (3), and OPS (1.043). After manning center field as a freshman, he deftly handled the move to the infield in 2020, finishing at No. 3 in D1Baseball's positional power rankings for shortstops.

The Bruins enter the new campaign ranked as high as No. 2 in the country. UCLA – which is anchored by McLain and fellow Preseason All-Americans Zach Pettway and Kyle Mora – returns its entire starting rotation and all but one starting position player. The Bruins are coming off a 2020 campaign that looked like it had the makings of a special season before it was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Bruins won 11 straight games out of the gate, ultimately finishing with a 13-2 record and a No. 1 ranking in the RPI.

UCLA announced its 2021 schedule last week, with the new season starting on Feb. 19 against San Francisco.

To view the entire 2021 schedule, click HERE.

Stay tuned to @UCLABaseball on Twitter for all team updates.