This Week In Pac-12 Baseball

DOWNLOAD COMPLETE RELEASE (PDF)

Pac-12 Notes

WEEKLY RECAP: No. 5 Oregon State’s win streak reached 11 games before being snapped by San Francisco. The Beavers are 12-2 on the year after taking two of three from the Dons. No. 14 California split two games with Texas Tech while No. 18 Oregon had a tough road trip to No. 15 Mississippi State, dropping all three games. No. 25 Arizona State and Arizona are the hottest teams in the Conference with the Sun Devils riding an eight-game winning streak while the Wildcats have won their last seven. Arizona State swept UC Davis last weekend and Arizona took all three games from Sacramento State, including a 23-run outbreak on March 12. UCLA took won two of three games against Texas while USC grabbed a win at No. 7 TCU. Utah, like the rest of the league, dealt with lots of rain last weekend, but they managed to pick up two wins at St. Mary’s on Saturday. Washington and Washington State both had series wins last weekend, with the Huskies taking two from Pacific and the Cougars winning three of four against Northeastern.

PREVIEWING THE WEEKEND: Conference action begins for 10 of the 11 Pac-12 teams this weekend. On Thursday, No. 14 California heads to USC to begin a three-game series where the first two games will be broadcast live on the Pac-12 Networks. No. 25 Arizona State heads to Corvallis to face No. 5 Oregon State where the Sun Devils’ eight-game winning streak will be put to the test. Washington State will travel to UCLA while Arizona heads to Washington and Oregon is set host a three-game series against Utah. Stanford returns to the diamond after an 11-day hiatus where it will face the Kansas Jayhawks.

NUMBERS GAME: Oregon State is 7th in the country in batting average at .335 ... Oregon State leads the country in triples per game with 0.86 while Arizona ranks third with 0.75 per game ... Arizona is tied for No. 38 in the country in drawing walks at 82 and it is also second in the country in sacrifice bunts with 23 on the year ... The league has three teams in the top 15 nationally for ERA: Arizona State (No. 10, 2.22), Stanford (No. 13, 2.31) and California (No. 14, 2.32) ... The Cardinal pitching staff has the fifth-best mark in the country for hits allowed per inning at 6.11 ... The Cardinal have the best fielding percentage in the country at 0.989 while Arizona is eighth at 0.985 ... Stanford has the fourth-best WHIP rating in the country at 0.97 (WHIP is calculated by adding the number of walks and hits allowed and dividing this sum by the number of innings pitched).

Oregon State’s Logan Ice is tied for the 10th-best batting average in the country at 0.467 and the third-best slugging percentage at 0.978 ... He’s also third in the country at 0.29 triples per game, followed closely by two Wildcats in Jared Oliva (fourth, 0.27 per game) and Cody Ramer (sixth, 0.25 per game) ... Justin Behnke of Arizona is fourth in the country in base on balls, drawing 1.25 walks per game ... In three appearances and 12.2 innings of work, Stanford’s Colton Hock has yet to surrender a run and neither has Washington’s Troy Rallings in eight appearances and 13.1 innings ... Rallings has the fifth-best WHIP in the nation at 0.60, right behind Arizona’s Nathan Bannister who is fourth, also at 0.6.

STARS DELIVERING: Preseason All-American Matt Krook of Oregon is eighth in the country in strikeouts per nine innings with 14.26. Arizona’s All-American 3B/RHP Bobby Dalbec has earned three victories and five saves on the year. After slumping a bit early in the season, the reigning Pac-12 home run leader has hit three home runs in his last three games and has helped lead Arizona on its seven-game winning streak. California’s preseason All-American Daulton Jefferies is tied for the most wins in the country with four on the year and is 19th in the country in strikeouts with 33. Arizona State’s Colby Woodmansee, a preseason All-American, is tied for the league lead in runs batted in with 18 and is tops in the Conference in doubles with eight.

IN THE RANKINGS: In the latest USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll, four Pac-12 teams are ranked. Oregon State leads the way at No. 5, followed by California at No. 14, Oregon sits at No. 18 and Arizona State is ranked No. 25.

ALL-AMERICANS: The Pac-12 had 10 different student-athletes from nine schools garner preseason All-America honors. Oregon and Stanford each two different players honored to lead the way while the rest of the teams just had one honoree.

Pac-12 Players of the Week

PLAYER OF THE WEEK – David Greer, Jr., INF, Arizona State

Greer started all five games at first base and tallied 11 hits, including three doubles and a home run, four RBI, and three runs scored. He notched a .458 batting average, a .481 on-base percentage and a .708 slugging percentage over the past five games.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK - Drew Rasmussen, So., RHP, Oregon State

The right-hander struck out a career-best 12 batters in the Beavers’ 8-5 series-opening victory over visiting San Francisco on Friday. He worked six innings and scattered just two hits and a run, keeping the Dons out of scoring position until the sixth inning.

GOLDEN SPIKES: The USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List features 50 amateurs, six of which are student-athletes from six different Pac-12 teams. With six, the Pac-12 has the third-most representatives among all conferences. Now in its 39th year recognizing the top amateur baseball player in the country, seven former Pac-12 baseball players have won the award, most recently pitcher Trevor Bauer of UCLA in 2011. 

STOPPER OF THE YEAR: The Pac-12 has eight student-athletes on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Preseason Watch List, tied for the second-most among all conferences. Washington is the only lone Pac-12 team with more than one student-athlete on the list. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association will be presenting the Stopper of the Year Award to the top relief pitcher in Division I baseball for the 12th straight year in 2016. UCLA’s David Berg won the honor two of the last three years.

DRAFT: The league is coming off a 2015 season that saw six teams earn berths to the NCAA Tournament and saw 53 players selected in the Major League Baseball Draft. Arizona State led the way with nine draftees while UCLA and USC each had 8. Twenty-four players were selected in the first 10 rounds and 29 were selected on the final day. Since 1997, the Pac-12 has had at least one player drafted in the first round each season. During that time, the league has garnered 62 first-round picks.

NEW FACES IN THE DUGOUT: On June 8, 2015, Jay Johnson was named head coach at Arizona. In his second and final year at Nevada, Johnson was named the 2015 Mountain West Coach of the Year. He led the team to its first-ever Mountain West Conference championship. They tallied 41 wins on the year, second-most in program history. Johnson replaced Andy Lopez, who retired at the end of the 2015 season after 14 years at the helm. The three-time National Coach of the Year led the Wildcats to two College World Series Appearances and won the title in 2012.

Washington State’s Marty Lees became the 15th head coach in program history. Lees spent the last three seasons as the assistant coach/recruiting coordinator at Oklahoma State and the previous 11 at Oregon State. Lees thrived as Oklahoma State’s recruiting coordinator. The Cowboys’ first class with Lees on board was ranked No. 4 nationally by Baseball America and No. 5 by Collegiate Baseball, and followed that with a 2014 class that was ranked No. 5 by Collegiate Baseball for the second-consecutive year.

National Honors

Baseball America Preseason All-Americans 
First Team
KJ Harrison, OSU, 1B
Bobby Dalbec, ARIZ, 3B/RHP

Second Team
Daulton Jefferies, CAL, RHP

Third Team
Tommy Edman, STAN, 2B
Colby Woodmansee, ASU, SS
Cal Quantrill, STAN, RHP

NCBWA Preseason All-Americans
First Team
Bobby Dalbec, ARIZ, 3B/SP

Second Team
KJ Harrison, OSU, 1B
Stephen Nogosek, ORE, RP

Third Team
Daulton Jefferies, CAL, SP
Griffin Canning, UCLA, SP
Matt Krook, ORE, SP

Louisville Slugger Preseason All-Americans
Second Team
Daulton Jefferies, CAL, RHP
Ian Hamilton, WSU, RHP
KJ Harrison, OSU, 1B
Bobby Dalbec, ARIZ, 3B
Colby Woodmansee, ASU, SS

Third Team
Matt Krook, ORE, LHP
Cal Quantrill, STAN, RHP

NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch List
Tucker Forbes, UCLA
Ian Hamilton, WSU
Mitch Hickey, OSU
Marc Huberman, USC
Spencer Jones, WASH
Erik Martinez, CAL
Stephen Nogosek, ORE
Troy Rallings, WASH

USA Baseball Golden Spikes Watch List
Bobby Dalbec, ARIZ
KJ Harrison, OSU
Daulton Jefferies, CAL
Matt Krook, ORE
Cal Quantrill, STAN
Colby Woodmansee, ASU