Pac-12 Baseball Notebook 3/7: Beavs Drop A Game, ASU Stays Undefeated

Even with OSU dropping a game over the weekend, there’s little reason to panic if you’re a Beaver fan. It does mean, however, that ASU is now the only undefeated team in the Pac-12. ASU needed something of a rebound year after the last two seasons. While there’s plenty more baseball to be played, they seem to be in the midst of just that.

Meanwhile, Cal’s Andrew Vaughn continues to highlight the individual talent in this league, along with of course Adley Rutschman, a good start from OSU’s Alex McGarry, ASU’s Lyle Lin, and UW’s Braiden Ward.

Read on to see what else is happening on the diamond in the conference of champions.

Power Rankings

1. Arizona State Sun Devils (12-0): ASU are 12-0 to this point in the season with Lyle Lin and Spencer Torkelson having the two highest RBI totals in the league. After impressively going on the road and downing Cal State Fullerton, ASU hosts Xavier for three games at home this weekend.

2. Oregon State Beavers (10-1): The Beavs (up to #7 in Baseball America’s latest rankings) overall looked solid in a series against West Virginia last weekend, but dropped the Sunday game due to some uncharacteristic and lackluster offense. Brandon Eisert still looks like possibly the best reliever in the league with an ERA of 0 and four winning decisions already. The Beavs next head to Seattle this weekend to do battle with Minnesota, Indiana, and Coastal Carolina.

3. UCLA Bruins (9-2): The #2 team in the country according to some, the 9-2 Bruins dropped their second game of the year over the weekend to Sacramento State. This weekend should be incredibly interesting with Michigan and Oklahoma State visiting campus and a game against USC in Dodger Stadium.

4. Stanford Cardinal (9-2): Still a top five team according to Baseball America, Stanford had an entertaining series against Cal State Fullerton last weekend where they took two of three by slim margins. In what could end up being the most entertaining series of the weekend, Stanford hosts Texas for four games on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

5. Washington Huskies (8-2): The Huskies have had a really solid week. Lead-off hitter Braiden Ward, who leads the league in stolen bases, won conference player of the week and sophomore righty Josh Burgmann won pitcher of the week. Burgmann struck out 10 Cal Poly batters in their game late last week. UW are the winners of seven straight.

6. Arizona Wildcats (7-3): The Wildcats continue to be a good team with some consistency issues. They’ve won two of four games in the last week, with both wins being high-scoring affairs against Milwaukee. Continue to keep an eye on the tandem of Ryan Holgate and Matt Frazier

7. Oregon Ducks (8-5): The Ducks are doing some good things particularly in the pitching department. Cole Stringer’s two appearances have him at a 0.73 ERA. The Ducks have lost two straight though including a road loss to Portland. They’re now off to Honolulu for a weekend set with Hawaii.

8. California Golden Bears (6-4): The Bears took two of three games over the weekend against Saint Mary’s. Andrew Vaughn continues to be an offensive beast with seven home runs, 18 RBIs, and a .529 batting average.

9. Utah Utes (5-5): The Utes might be picking up a little steam? They played a showcase in North Carolina and won two out of their three games. Their offense got going with 32 runs in those three games. Their only loss was by one run to East Carolina.

10. Washington State Cougars (5-7): The Cougs hosted Nevada for a three-game series over the weekend and took two of three. They have Cal State Northridge in Pullman this weekend with a decent shot to get above .500 on the year.

11. USC Trojans (4-7): USC are once again having another majorly disappointing year. They’ve dropped four in a row, including a 14-5 blowout against Loyola Marymount on Tuesday. Their schedule doesn’t get much easier from here on out.