Drew Rasmussen Honored; Oregon St. Into Top 25

Drew Rasmussen's perfect game Saturday, the first ever in Oregon St. history, has earned the Beaver freshman both the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week award and the Louisville Slugger National Player of the Week honor.

It was only the 4th ever in the Pac-12's various predecessors, and the first since 1973. Ironically, it came against Washington St., as the Cougars have the only other 3, in 1968, 1971, & 1973.

Rasmussen needed only 103 pitches, and an hour and 44 minutes to set 27 Washington St. batters down, improving his record to 3-0, and his ERA to 1.36.

The Beavers' weekend sweep of the Cougars also elevated Oregon St. back into the D1baseball top 25, one of 6 Pac-12 teams ranked. The Beavers are at #24, and stepped just ahead of Oregon, who fell to #25 from #15, after the Ducks lost 2 of 3 to Arizona St.

The Sun Devils also had an in-week win over New Mexico, and moved up from #7 to #6.

The Pac-12 is well represented in the top 10, with UCLA at #7, up from #10 after a weekend sweep of Utah, and USC, who remained at #9, after the Trojans took the last 2 of 3 from Cal-Poly, who will be at Goss this coming weekend for a non-conference series with Oregon St.

California also moved into the top 25, a spot ahead of the Beavers, at #23, after the Bears swept Washington.

Perfect Game obviously likes perfect games, but they liked the Beavers before Rasmussen's Sport Center #1 highlight of the day Saturday. It did move Oregon St. all the way up to #11 in their ranking.

Oregon St. hosts a Tuesday-Wednesday series against San Jose St. before Cal-Poly comes to town to complete their current 8 game home stand.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com