Final Polls Puts Oregon St. In Second 10

Now that the CWS is complete, the final collegiate baseball polls are out, and Oregon St. wound up generally a little better than their exit in the Regional, which left the Beavers watching the final 16 teams play on. It was another solid season, though disappointing after climbing to the top of the polls late in the regular season, and entering the post season as the #1 overall seed.

Everyone had Vanderbilt #1, after the Commodores claimed their first CWS Championship, and Virginia #2.

Baseball America put Oregon St. at #13, one spot behind Pepperdine, while the USA Today poll put the Beavers at #12, 2 slots ahead of the Waves.

Kendall Rogers held Oregon St. in the highest standing of the various lists, keeping the Beavers in the top 10 in his Perfect Game Top 25.

Collegiate Baseball reserved the top 16 for the teams that made it to the Super Regionals, but did slot Oregon St. the highest of the rest, at #17.

UC-Irvine, the team that not only eliminated Oregon St. in the Corvallis Regional, but also upset another OSU, Oklahoma St. in the surprise Stillwater Super Regional, to advance to the CWS earned a consensus top 8 finish, after entering the post season unranked by everyone, and being one of the final 4 teams into the NCAA Tournament.

Even though the Anteaters made an early exit from Omaha, they came away with a #6 ranking on the Collegiate Baseball poll, #7 on the USA Today list, and #8 on both the Baseball America and Perfect Game final rankings.

Stanford was the other west coast team to come from nowhere, at least as far as the polls go, with a surprise trip to the Super Regionals after winning the Bloomington regional. upsetting Indiana on the road, before bowing out to eventual National Champion Vanderbilt, but only after forcing a deciding 3rd game in Nashville.

As a result, the Cardinal climbed all the way to #15 in the Baseball America poll, just 2 spots behing the Beavers. Stanford was also 15th on the Perfect Game and USA Today lists, and even climbed past Oregon St. to be the highest ranked Pac-12 team on Collegiate Baseball's list, coming in at #15 there as well, but 2 spots ahead of the Beavers.

Cal-Poly was the only other consensus top 25 team from the west, though the Mustangs, like the Beavers, took quite a tumble after losing their own regional, which dropped them from an end of the regular season #5, which surprisingly didn't earn a National Seed, all the way to 20th in both the Baseball America and Perfect Game rankings.

Cal-Poly wound up ranked #17 by Collegiate Baseball, and #18 by USA Today.

Washington concluded a superb season, given they were picked to finish 10th in the 11 team Pac-12 by the conference coaches in their pre-season poll, and missed out on a consensus top 25 season only because the USA Today poll left them off.

Baseball America put the Huskies at #24, Collegiate Baseball had them at #22, and Kendall Rogers slotted Washington at #19 on the Perfect Game list.

Collegiate Baseball goes 30 deep on their list, and so a 4th Pac-12 team, and 7th team from the west, got some post-season consideration, with Oregon coming in at #27 on their list.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com