Oregon St. Edges Up To #20 In Baseball Poll

After taking the last 2 games of their weekend series against Washington, Oregon St. moved up from #22 to #20 in this week's BaseballAmerica.com poll. That's partially due to Oregon's sweep of Arizona St., which also moved the Ducks up from #23 to #22, but more importantly dropped the Sun Devils, who had already split with Cal-St. Fullerton, from #14 down to #24.

Fullerton, the highest ranked non-Pac-12 team from the west, also slipped, from #13 down to #14. The Titans took only 2 of 3 from Cal-St. Northridge over the weekend.

Florida remained #1 as they have been all season, despite losing 2 of 3 over the weekend at Mississippi, in part because the Gators beat Florida St. last week. The Seminoles then swept Virginia Tech, and moved up from #4 to #2.

Stanford, who has been #2 all season, fell all the way to #6 this week. The Cardinal lost the rain delayed final game of their series to USC, then defeated St. Marys, but got swept by Arizona in Tucson over the weekend.

The 'Cats extended their winning streak to 5 games, having beaten Oregon St. in the last 2 games of last weekend's series, jumped from #8 up to #4.

UCLA bounced back from losing their rain delayed game against Washington St. on Monday to sweep Utah in Salt Lake City, and as a result climbed from #6 to #5, squarely in between Arizona and Stanford.

Oregon's sweep of Arizona St. turned heads in part because the Ducks had limped home after getting swept in a 2 game series by the Texas St. Bobcats in San Marcos.

The polls are likely to shake up the Pac-12 teams some more this week, as Oregon St. visits Arizona St., with the series loser potentially dropping out of the top 25, especially if there is a sweep, Oregon visits UCLA, and Stanford travels to Seattle, where weather could be a factor, to face the tougher than everyone expected Huskies.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com