Georgia is ranked No. 18 nationally in the 2012 Collegiate Baseball Preseason Top 40, the publication announced Monday.

The Bulldogs open the 2012 season on Friday, Feb. 17 by playing host to Presbyterian. A year after playing one of the toughest rated schedules in the nation; Georgia will enjoy having 35 of its 56 regular season games in 2012 at home.

Georgia is one of six SEC schools to be ranked in the preseason poll: Florida (No. 1), South Carolina (No. 2), Arkansas (No. 8), LSU (No. 12), and Vanderbilt (No. 23).

The Bulldogs welcome back 22 lettermen from last year’s squad that posted a 33-32 mark and advanced to the NCAA Corvallis (Ore.) Regional final. Eight position starters are back along with eight pitchers that logged significant innings. The top Bulldog starting pitchers include senior Michael Palazzone (10-5, 3.14 ERA), redshirt sophomore Alex Wood (6-7, 4.44 ERA) and junior left-hander Blake Dieterich (3-3, 3.67 ERA). Also, Georgia has ace reliever junior Tyler Maloof returning, and he ranked third nationally with 18 saves. Around the diamond, Georgia will be led by senior second baseman Levi Hyams (.332-5-38) and junior shortstop Kyle Farmer (.308-8-58).

In other baseball news released Monday, the SEC announced it has altered the format of its annual baseball tournament by increasing the field to 10 teams. It is the first major change to the tournament’s format since 1996. The SEC Baseball Tournament will be in Hoover, Ala., at Regions Park for the 15th consecutive year. The event will be from May 22-27 and tickets will go on sale in February. The 10 teams will be seeded 1-10 with the two divisional champions guaranteed the top two seeds and first-round byes. Games played from Tuesday through Friday will be double elimination with single elimination starting on Saturday.