This Week In Pac-12 Baseball

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Pac-12 Notes

PAC-12 TITLE RACE: Three teams are in the hunt for a share of the Pac-12 Championship: Utah, Washington and Arizona State. If there is a tie in records, there will be co-champions, even if it is three teams. Whoever has the better head-to-head matchup will get the NCAA automatic qualifier. If there’s no tie, then the league champion just gets the automatic qualifier. Since Arizona State lost the series to both Washington and Utah, it could be co-champions but cannot get the automatic qualifier, should all three teams end up with 18-12 league records. Whoever wins the series between Utah and Washington will get the NCAA automatic qualifying bid. The NCAA Selection Show will take place at 9 a.m. PT on Monday, May 30.

WEEKLY RECAP: Utah took two games at California to win the series and keep it’s one game advantage over Washington. The Huskies won two games against Stanford to keep pace with the Utes. Arizona State’s two victories over UCLA kept them in the hunt for a share of the title. Oregon won its home series against Arizona while Oregon State took two games against USC. Washington State played a four-game series against McNeese State and won the finale.

PREVIEWING THE WEEKEND: For the final week of the regular season, each game will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks. Utah hosts Washington with the Pac-12 title and NCAA automatic qualifying bid at stake. Arizona State hosts USC in a pivotal series as well, the Sun Devils must sweep the Trojans to have a chance at a share of the league title while the Trojans look to play spoiler. Oregon heads to The Farm to take on the Cardinal. Oregon State hosts UCLA while California heads to Washington State. Arizona finished the Conference season with a 16-14 record and will head to Hawai’i for a three-game series to end the regular season.

NUMBERS GAME: Oregon State has 30 triples on the year, the third-best total in the country while Arizona has the sixth-most with 25 ... Arizona is tied for No. 25 in the country in drawing walks at 258 and it is also tied for sixth in the country in sacrifice bunts with 67 on the year. Washington tops the league with 76 sacrifice bunts and is second in the nation ... The Beavers pitching staff has the 18th-best mark in the country for hits allowed per nine innings at 7.83 ... California turns 1.10 double plays per game, the No. 7 mark in the nation ... Four Pac-12 teams rank in the top 38 in the nation in WHIP with Arizona leading the way at No. 18 (1.21), Washington is No. 20 (1.22), Oregon State is 31st (1.26) and Stanford sits at No. 38 (1.29) (WHIP is calculated by adding the number of walks and hits allowed and dividing this sum by the number of innings pitched).

David Greer of Arizona State is tied for seventh in the nation with 23 doubles on the year ... USC’s Jeremy Martinez is eighth in the NCAA’s ‘toughest to strike out’ category, only striking out once every 20.0 at bats ... Fellow Trojan David Oppenheim has the No. 20 ranked on base percentage in the country at 0.489 ... Brett Cumberland of California leads the league in home runs with 15, tied for the 21st-best total in the country. Cumberland also has the No. 15 ranked slugging percentage at 0.683 and an on-base percentage of 0.488, ranked No. 21 in the nation ... Jack Meggs of Washington has laid down 21 sacrifice bunts on the year which is the best mark in the nation ... In 28 appearances and 61.0 innings of work, Washington’s Troy Rallings has allowed only six earned runs, boasting an ERA of 0.89 which is second in the country. Rallings also has the nation’s best WHIP rating at 0.72. Rallings has now earned 31 saves over the course of his career which is tied for the fourth-best total in Conference history ... Also in the top-15 in the country in WHIP is Nathan Bannister of Arizona who is 12th at 0.93 ... Rallings is also tied for second in the nation in saves with 16 and Oregon State’s Max Engelbrekt is tied for the 26th-best total in the county with 11 saves on the year.

STARS DELIVERING: Preseason All-American Matt Krook of Oregon is 18th in the country in strikeouts per nine innings with 11.40. Fellow Duck and preseason All-American Stephen Nogosek has 16 saves on the year, tied for the second-best tally in the nation. Arizona’s All-American 3B/RHP Bobby Dalbec has earned eight victories (tied for No. 2 in league) and seven saves on the year. KJ Harrison of Oregon State, a preseason All-American and the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, is third in the Conference in runs scored with 48 is second in the Pac-12 with 10 home runs on the year.

IN THE RANKINGS: In the latest NCBWA Top 30, Oregon State leads the way at No. 24 while Arizona State is No. 28. In the NCAA RPI rankings as of May 25, Arizona sits at No. 26, Arizona State is 39th, Oregon State is 49th, Washington sits at No. 50 and California is 68th. The Pac-12 Conference has the No. 4 RPI among all the leagues. No Pac-12 teams are ranked in the USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll.

COSIDA ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT: Four student-athletes from the Pac-12 earned CoSIDA Academic All-Disrict honorees. In District 8, Stanford pitcher Andrew Summerville (So., 3.72 GPA, management, science & engineering major), Stanford infielder Tommy Edman (Jr., 3.84 GPA, computer science major), Oregon State infielder KJ Harrison (So., 3.39 GPA, pre-business major) and Oregon State outfielder Jack Anderson (Jr., 3.73 GPA, kinesiology major) represented the Pac-12.

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

Pac-12 Players of the Week

PLAYER OF THE WEEK – Chris Baker, Jr., 3B, Washington

Baker (San Mateo, Calif.) went 10 for 17 (.558) with multiple hits in all four of Washington’s games where the Huskies posted a 3-1 record overall, going 2-1 vs. Stanford and 1-0 vs. Northern Colorado. He hit one home and a double, scored 4 runs, drove in four runs, had a slugging percentage of .824, an on-base percentage of .632 and a 1.456 ops.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK – Travis Eckert, Sr., RHP, Oregon State

Eckert (Austin, Texas) earned his sixth win after throwing his first career complete game in Oregon State’s 3-1 win over USC Friday night. The senior took a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Pac-12’s top offensive team. Eckert ended the night by allowing just three baserunners and faced only one batter over the minimum.

GOLDEN SPIKES: The USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List features 50 amateurs, three of which are student-athletes from three different Pac-12 teams. 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 four student-athletes on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Midseason Watch List, tied for the second-most among all conferences. 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.

PAC-12 IN THE MAJORS: With the Major League Baseball season beginning last week, 41 former Pac-12 players made the opening day rosters while 10 coaches are in MLB dugouts. With representation from 10 of the 11 teams, Arizona State leads the way with 12 former players currently in the league.

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

Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week
David Peterson, ORE, LHP - March 7
Ryan Hingst, ASU, RHP - March 29
Brett Cumberland, CAL, C - April 4

NCBWA National Players of the Week
Ryan Hingst, ASU, RHP - March 29

2015 Teaching Professional of The Year by Collegiate Baseball
John Savage, UCLA

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

National Pitcher of the Year Watch List
Troy Rallings, WASH

Brooks Wallace Shortstop of the Year Watch List
Cody Ramer, ARIZ
Colby Woodmansee, ASU
Trever Morrison, OSU
Tommy Edman, STAN

John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year Watch List
Bobby Dalbec, ARIZ, 3B/RHP

NCBWA Stopper of the Year Watch List
Bobby Dalbec, ARIZ
Stephen Nogosek, ORE
Max Engelbrekt, OSU
Troy Rallings, WASH

USA Baseball Golden Spikes Watch List
Brett Cumberland, CAL
Logan Ice, OSU
Stephen Nogosek, ORE