Jace Fry Pac-12 Pitcher Of Week; Beavers Don't Crack Top 25

Oregon St. freshman left-hander Jace Fry (4-2, 2.23 ERA) was named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week, after his complete game 3-0 shutout of UCLA Saturday, in which Fry only allowed the Bruins 6 hits. The effort helped the Beavers take the weekend series from then 11th ranked UCLA.

Oregon St. has now won 8 of their last 9 games, and 3 of 4 last week, but it wasn't enough to break back into the BaseballAmerica.com top 25. In fact, no one dropped out of the top 25, though there was some shuffling.

UCLA, which had a 12-4 win over Cal-State Northridge before making the trip north to play Oregon St., dropped only to #12 despite dropping out of a tie for the Pac-12 Conference lead. Oregon, which also fell out of the first place tie in the Pac-12 after losing the last 2 of 3 to Washington St., is now the only conference team in the top 10, having dropped to 10th from 8th. The Ducks did defeat both Arkansas Pine Bluff and Portland, in a no-hitter by Jordan Spencer, before getting ambushed in their own park by the Cougars.

There are a lot of conference teams barely outside the top 10 though, as in addition to UCLA, league leading Arizona is in at 11th, climbing up from 13 a week ago, and Stanford is now 13th.

The Wildcats bounced back from a non-conference loss at cross-state rival Arizona St. to take the first 2 of 3 at Washington, before the Huskies bounced back to take the 6-5 win in 12 innings to cap Sunday's action.

The Cardinal had been upset 3-2 by San Jose St. on Tuesday, but bounced back to sweep then #20 Arizona St., and moved up one spot from 14th. a week ago. As a result, the Sun Devils dropped to #23.

The only other teams in the top 25 to have a losing record last week were Miami, who was swept by #1 ranked Florida St., after a mid-week win over Stetson, which dropped the Hurricanes from #18 down to #22, North Carolina, which dropped 3 of 5 and tumbled to #16 from #10, and Texas A&M, which fell from #2 to #9 after the Aggies lost to now #6 Rice, and then dropped all 3 games against Baylor, who moved up from #6 to #3 as a result.

Cal-State Fullerton is now the highest ranked western team, as the Titans moved from #12 to #8 after beating Pepperdine, and then taking 2 of 3 from Cal-Poly.

San Diego took 2 of 3 from St. Mary's, and moved up from #19 to #17, and WAC leading New Mexico St. held onto the #25 spot that Oregon St. was in quest of, having swept Louisiana Tech, after losing a week-opening game at Sacramento St.

Andy _Wooldridge@yahoo.com