Oregon St. Up To #2

By taking 2 of 3 games from formerly 20th ranked Arizona St., Oregon St. was able to edge up 1 spot to #2 in this week's Baseball America Top 25 Poll. It's the highest ranking the Beavers have achieved since 2011.

North Carolina remains the #1 team after beating Princeton, and taking both of the games that actually got played against Boston College, but Vanderbilt slipped from #2 to the #3 spot previously occupied by Oregon St. after the Commodores lost to Middle Tennessee, and then took only 2 of 3 from visiting Florida.

LSU is on the move as well, and their 22-2 record has them up to #4.

Fullerton St. moved into the top 25 after the Titans went 5-0, taking a pair from Nebraska and sweeping Long Beach St.

UCLA and Oregon, who share first place in the Pac-12 Conference with Oregon St., both moved up as well this week. The Bruins climbed from #11 to #7 after taking 2 of 3 from California, with first place in the conference on the line to the series winner, and the Ducks moved from #13 up to #12 after sweeping Arizona.

The 3 are the only Pac-12 teams to be ranked, as the Sun Devils dropped out of the polls after dropping the series to the Beavers.

Gonzaga, whom Oregon St. beat on opening weekend, moved into the top 25, landing at #20 after taking 2 of 3 from San Diego, who will be the Beavers' host for a 3 game series this Thursday through Saturday. The Toreros, who were #25 last week, dropped out of the rankings as a result of losing the series to the 'Zags, but could jump right back in with a series win against Oregon St.

The only other team from the west that is ranked is Cal-Poly. The Mustangs moved into the poll at #23 after taking 2 of 3 from UC-Santa Barbara.

Oregon St. remained at #2 in the Collegiate Baseball poll, and moved up a spot from #4 to #3 in the USA Today Coaches' Assistant Sports Information Directors poll. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers poll moved the Beavers up from #4 to #3, but Perfect Game left them at #5.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com