Pac-12 Baseball Weekly Rundown - April 5, 2023

Schedule // Standings // Pac-12 Stats // Pac-12 Stats (PDF) // NCAA Statistics 

LEADING OFF: One month of Pac-12 play is in the books and not many predicted that USC and Arizona State would be hovering at the top of the league standings. The Sun Devils and Trojans were picked to finish sixth and 10th, respectively, in the preseason coaches poll and are currently tied for first (ASU) and third (USC) as both have already exceeded expectations.

Arizona State took two of three at Cal to win a third straight Pac-12 series while the Trojans won its fourth consecutive league series for the first time since 2001, also taking two of three on the road at Utah. At 9-3 in league action, USC currently has the most conference wins in 2023. Defending Pac-12 Champion and ninth-ranked Stanford shares the conference lead with Arizona State at 7-2 with the Cardinal coming off a 2-2 series split at Oklahoma on their conference bye week. 

No one may be playing better baseball right now than Oregon, though. The Ducks sit in fourth in the standings at 6-3 and have won 10 straight, which includes a series sweep at Arizona last weekend, their first series win in Tucson since 2012. The hot streak has put Oregon back in the national polls with the Ducks ranked No. 25 by D1Baseball and No. 20 by Collegiate Baseball. 

While a lot of baseball is left to be played, the strong start by these top four squads through the first four weeks gives them a leg up on the path to the regular season title and a guaranteed berth in Scottsdale for the second year of the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament (May 23-27). 

With Easter weekend ahead, the week five series will all take place Thursday through Saturday. The slate includes two rivalry matchups with Oregon and Oregon State battling in Eugene (Pac-12 Mountain/Oregon) and Stanford traveling the short distance up to Berkeley to take on California (Pac-12 Network/Arizona/Bay Area). Washington and Washington State will both be heading to the state of Arizona, with the Cougars facing the Sun Devils in Phoenix and the Huskies and Wildcats squaring off in Tucson. UCLA returns home to host Utah and will be looking to bounce back from two straight league series losses while USC will also be in LA, welcoming San Diego State to Dedeaux Field for a three-game non-conference set. 

The midweek schedule will feature 15 games from Monday, April 10 through Wednesday, April 12, highlighted by No. 23 Texas Tech's visit to Sunken Diamond for a two-game series with No. 9 Stanford, April 10-11. Monday's game will air live on Pac-12 Network and Tuesday's contest will be available to watch on Pac-12 Insider.

RPI: 

• The Pac-12 has the third-best RPI ranking as a conference behind only the SEC and the ACC.
• All 11 Pac-12 teams are in the top 100 of the RPI rankings, including three in the top 25 through April 4. UCLA holds the top RPI ranking in the conference at No. 9 overall, Oregon jumped 12 spots to No. 11, Stanford checks in No. 25 and Arizona State is just outside the top 50 at No. 51. Arizona is at No. 59, followed by Washington at No. 63, Oregon State at No. 68, Washington State at No. 75, USC at No. 82, California at No. 94 and Utah at No. 99. 

STACKING UP:

• The Pac-12 has the third-best non-conference winning percentage among all conferences so far in 2023 with a 120-47-1 mark. The SEC is on top with a 235-45-1 record, followed by the ACC in second at 185-53.
• 10 of 11 league teams are at .500 or better through six weeks of the season, while eight of 11 have winning percentages of .600 or better. Six teams (Stanford, ASU, USC, Oregon, Washington and UCLA) are .500 or better in league play.

RANKINGS ROUNDUP:

• USA Today: #9 Stanford, #22 UCLA, RV - Oregon, USC, Arizona State
• D1Baseball: #8 Stanford, #23 UCLA, #25 Oregon
• Baseball America: #7 Stanford, #25 USC
• Collegiate Baseball: #10 Stanford, #16 Arizona State, #20 Oregon
• NCBWA:  #8 Stanford, #23 UCLA, #26 Oregon, RV Arizona State, Oregon State, USC, Washington
• Perfect Game:  #12 Stanford, #19 UCLA, Also Considered: Oregon

QUICK HITTERS:

• USC's first-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz picked up his first signature series win against then-No. 3 Stanford at home the weekend of March 10, the Trojans' first over the Cardinal in eight years. USC continues to stay hot, grabbing victories in 12 of its last 15 and winning its first four Pac-12 series this season after winning just two in all of 2022. The Trojans' nine league wins have already surpassed their total of eight from a year ago, while the four consecutive Pac-12 series wins is a first since 2001.
• Since losing its conference-opening series at USC on the weekend of March 11, Stanford has gone 8-2 over its last 10 games. The Cardinal split the four-game non-conference set at Oklahoma last weekend, but outscored the Sooners 39-16 in the two victories and only lost the other two games by a combined three runs. 
• Dating back to March 10, Arizona State has gone 14-2 and won its first three Pac-12 series after winning a total of four series in 2022. The Sun Devils' 20 wins are also six away from matching its total wins all of last spring. Sophomore catcher Ryan Campos has been a force at the plate for ASU, with his .430 batting average and 46 hits leading the conference and ranking No. 22 and No. 23, respectively, in the country.
• Oregon's 10-game winning streak, which includes last weekend's sweep and first series win at Arizona since 2012, matches the longest of the program's modern era, which was set from Feb. 18 to March 4, 2012. Duck senior Tanner Smith continues to set records as he became Oregon's all-time leader in career at-bats with 849 and tied former Duck Gabe Matthews for the UO career record in RBIs with 137. 
• Washington State's two-game sweep (game three of series was canceled due to weather/game two postponement) was its first series win over UCLA since 2017. No announcement on a makeup date for game three.
• UCLA currently has the 10th-best ERA in the country at 3.38, but the pitching staff will need to find its groove again after giving up 47 runs over its last eight games, including 43 during a five-game skid before it's 4-3 midweek win in 13 innings over Long Beach State on April 4. 
• Oregon State made it two straight Pac-12 series wins and won their ninth consecutive series over the Huskies after taking two of three at Husky Ballpark last weekend. The Beavers won the first two games of the series during a Saturday doubleheader to make it 13 straight over the Huskies and 10 straight in Seattle before UW salvaged the finale win on Sunday. OSU has won six of its last eight as the big weekend series at Oregon looms.
• Washington saw its streak of five straight Pac-12 series wins dating back to last season come to an end against Oregon State, but its 7-2 win in game three snapped a 13-game losing streak to the Beavers and was its first home win over OSU since 2017. Husky slugger Will Simpson continues to lead the Pac-12 and ranks 13th in the nation with 12 home runs in 2023. He is only the seventh Husky all-time to cross the 30 career home run plateau.
• Arizona hosts the Huskies this weekend having won nine straight over UW and every series against the Huskies in Tucson since 2015. 
• California's pitching staff ERA of 4.20 ranks third in the Pac-12 and 30th in the country.
• Utah freshman Cameron Gurney went 49 at-bats to start his career without striking out. At once every 15.8 at-bats, he is the toughest to strikeout of all Pac-12 players and No. 12 of all players in the NCAA.
• Arizona State's sweep over rival Arizona on the weekend of March 24 was its first since 2019 and only its second since 2009.
• Washington State took two of three at Oregon State in its Pac-12 opener on the weekend of March 10, the Cougars' first series win in Corvallis since 2009.
• Stanford junior catcher Albert Rios set a Cardinal record and matched the Pac-12 record with 11 RBIs in a 24-9 Stanford victory over CSU Bakersfield on Sunday, March 5. The 11 RBIs matched the previous Pac-12 record of 11 set by UCLA's Bill Scott vs. Washington in a game that started on March 29, 1999 and was completed on March 30, 1999 due to rain. 
• Oregon State head coach Mitch Canham picked up his 100th career victory on Tuesday, March 7 as the Beavers beat San Diego 9-4 in Corvallis. 

NATIONAL AWARDS:

• Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week
  • Feb. 20 - C Josiah Cromwick, Oregon
  • Feb. 27 - RHP Trent Sellers, Oregon State
  • Mar. 6 - 1B/OF/C Kiko Romero, Arizona
  • Mar. 13 - RHP Connor Wilford, Washington State
  • Mar. 20 - RHP Dakota Hawkins, Washington State; 2B Luke Keaschall, Arizona State
  • Mar. 27 - OF Tanner Smith, Oregon
• Perfect Game National Players of the Week
  • Mar. 7 - RHP Kiefer Lord, Washington - National Pitcher of the Week

STAT LINES:

• NCAA Top Team Rankings: Batting Avg. - Arizona State (14th, .319); Hits - Arizona State (12th, 323); Doubles - Arizona (9th, 70); Triples - USC (1st, 22); Home runs - Oregon (40th, 43); Scoring - Stanford (16th, 8.9); Slugging percentage - Stanford (24th, .532); Sacrifice Flys - Arizona State (12th, 19); Walks - Oregon State (25th, 162). ERA - UCLA (10th, 3.38); Shutouts - UCLA, Washington (17th, 3); Strikeout-to-Walk Ratio - UCLA (5th, 3.66); Strikeouts-Per-9 Innings - Washington State (12th, 11.1); Walks Allowed Per Nine Innings - UCLA (7th, 2.81); Fielding percentage - Washington (7th, .984); Double plays - Oregon State (35th, 24). 
• NCAA Top Individual Rankings: Batting Avg. - Ryan Campos, ASU (22nd, .430); Doubles - Kiko Romero, Arizona; Travis Bazzana, OSU; Luke Keaschall, ASU (47th, 11); Triples - Austin Overn, USC (1st, 10); Hits - Ryan Campos, ASU (23rd, 46); Runs - Ryan Campos, ASU (31st, 36); RBI - Kiko Romero, Arizona (75th, 33); Home Runs - Will Simpson (13th, 12); Sac Flys - Mac Bingham, Arizona (7th, 5); Sac Bunts - Bruer Webster, Utah (2nd, 8); On-base percentage - Braden Montgomery, Stanford (11th, .545); Slugging percentage - Braden Montgomery, Stanford (46th, .759); Toughest to Strikeout - Cameron Gurney, Utah (12th, 15.8); Stolen Bases - Rodney Green Jr., Cal (28th, 16); ERA - Michael Barnett, UCLA (22nd, 1.80); Saves - Chase Grillo, Washington State; Micah Ashman, Utah; Ryan Brown, OSU (27th, 5); Strikeouts - Trent Sellers, OSU (11th, 59).

WE'RE GOING STREAKING:

• Oregon enters the weekend riding a league-high 10-game winning streak. Washington State has the second-longest steak of four games as the Cougars have reeled off four straight to rebound from a mid-March six-game skid.
• Multiple Pac-12 hitters have streaks on the line at the plate heading into the fifth weekend of conference play. Arizona State's Ryan Campos and Oregon's Tanner Smith each have 10-game streaks going with Smith's teammate and reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week Jacob Walsh has an eight-gamer. 
• Multiple Pac-12ers have reached base safely over a long stretch of games. ASU's Jacob Tobias is on a conference-high 28-game streak; Tobias's teammate Campos is at 27 straight; Oregon's Smith is at 26 and Arizona's Chase Davis has reached safely in 25 straight.  

D1 BASEBALL POSITION RANKINGS (As of April 1):

• Top 50 Catchers - No. 7 Ryan Campos (Arizona State); No. 24 Malcolm Moore (Stanford); No. 26 Caleb Lomavita (California); No. 29 Johnny Tincher (Washington).
• Top 50 First Basemen - No. 8 Kiko Romero (Arizona); No. 20 Sam Brown (Washington State); No. 22 Will Simpson (Washington); No. 36 Garret Forester (Oregon State).
• Top 50 Second Basemen - No. 4 Luke Keaschall (Arizona State); No. 7 Ethan Gourson (UCLA); No. 10 Travis Bazzana; No. 44 Drew Bowser (Stanford).
• Top 50 Shortstops - No. 18 Cam Clayton (Washington); No. 24 Cody Schrier (UCLA); No. 31 Luke Hill (Arizona State); No. 37 Nik McClaughry (Arizona).
• Top 50 Third Basemen - No. 6 Tommy Troy (Stanford); No. 14 Sabin Ceballos; No. 21 Kyle Karros (UCLA); No. 42 Nu'u Contrades (Arizona State).
• Top 50 Relievers - No. 19 Micah Ashman (Utah); No. 23 Josh Mollerus (Oregon); No. 44 Josh Emanuels (Washington); No. 47 Garrett Clarke (USC).
• Top 100 Starting Pitchers - No. 23 Quinn Matthews (Stanford); No. 27 Kiefer Lord (Washington); No. 28 Kelly Austin (UCLA); No. 33 Alonzo Tredwell (UCLA); No. 41 Stu Flesland; No. 45 Ross Dunn (Arizona State); No. 48 Matt Scott (Stanford); No. 60 Jake Brooks (UCLA); No. 64 TJ Nichols (Arizona); No. 67 Paulshawn Pasqualotto (California); No. 75 Trent Sellers (Oregon State); 
• Top 100 Outfielders - No. 3 Braden Montgomery (Stanford); No. 25 Tanner Smith (Oregon); No. 29 Chase Davis (Arizona); No. 36 JonJon Vaughns (UCLA); No. 58 AJ Guerrero (Washington); No. 61 Albert Rios (Stanford); No. 86 Cole Gabrielson (USC).

PERFECT GAME MIDSEASON ALL-AMERICANS:

• Braden Montgomery, Stanford - Second Team Hitter
• Tommy Troy, Stanford - Third Team Hitter
• Kiefer Lord, Washington - Third Team Pitcher
• Malcolm Moore, Stanford - Freshman First Team Hitter
• Austin Overn, USC - Freshman First Team Hitter
• Matt Scott, Stanford - Freshman First Team Pitcher
• Matthew Grabmann, Oregon - Freshman Second Team Pitcher

2023 MLB OPENING DAY: Former Oregon State standout and the 2019 No.1 overall pick Adley Rutschman may have made his MLB debut for the Baltimore Orioles in 2022, but Thursday, March 30 marked his first Opening Day in the big leagues. Rutschman had a monster day, hitting a home run in his first at-bat and going 5-for-5 overall with 4 RBI in a 10-9 Baltimore win over Boston, joining Hall-of-Famers Billy Herman and Babe Ruth as the third player ever to go 5-5 and get multiple RBI on Opening Day. UCLA great Gerrit Cole made some history himself, recording the most strikeouts by a Yankee pitcher on Opening Day with 11 in New York's 5-0 shutout of the Giants. Rutschman and Cole highlight a total of 54 former Pac-12 stars on 2023 Opening Day rosters. It's the second-most players from a conference behind only the SEC (SEC 89, Pac-12 54, ACC 42, WCC 21, American 20).

CARDINAL PICKED TO REPEAT: For a second consecutive year the Pac-12 coaches took defending champion Stanford atop their preseason poll with the Cardinal receiving nine first-place votes for a total of 99 points.

UCLA collected the other two first-place votes to come in second with 90 points and Oregon State was in third with 77 points. Arizona (74 points) and Oregon (68 points) rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth, respectively. 

INAUGURAL PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM: For the first time in Pac-12 history, the conference announced a Preseason All-Pac-12 Team, voted on by the league’s coaches. 

Stanford led the way with eight selections. Preseason All-Americans Braden Montgomery (UTL), Ryan Bruno (LHP), Carter Graham (INF), Quinn Mathews (LHP) and Tommy Troy (INF) earned the honor along with Cardinal infielder Drew Bowser, outfielder Eddie Park and pitcher Joey Dixon.

The 32-person team also includes preseason All-Americans Travis Bazzana (INF) and Ben Ferrer (RHP) from Oregon State, Chase Davis (OF) from Arizona and pitcher Alonzo Tredwell of UCLA. 

Tredwell and UCLA teammate Cody Schrier (INF), both 2022 Freshman All-Americans, were two of six Bruins selected, which was second-most behind Stanford. 

FRESH (AND FAMILIAR) FACES:  The Pac-12 has a pair of new head coaches in 2023 - Washington’s Jason Kelly and USC’s Andy Stankiewicz - but neither are new to the West. 

Kelly in particular is no stranger to the Pac-12, returning to Washington to begin his head coaching career after previously spending seven years as the Huskies pitching coach from 2013-19 under Lindsay Meggs, who announced his retirement following the 2022 season. Kelly was a key part of UW’s first-ever trip to the Men’s College World Series in 2018 before stints as the pitching coach at Arizona State and last season at LSU. Kelly was also previously honored as the 2018 D1Baseball National Assistant Coach of the Year.

Stankiewicz, a former Major League Baseball player, came to USC last summer after a highly successful 11-year run at Grand Canyon in which he won five regular season Western Athletic Conference titles and was named the WAC Coach of the Year four times. Over the last two seasons, Stankiewicz guided Grand Canyon to its first ever NCAA Division I postseason appearance in 2021 then led the program to its first ever at-large bid this past season.

NATIONAL AWARDS PRESEASON WATCH LISTS

GOLDEN SPIKES

• Chase Davis; OF; Arizona
• Quinn Mathews; LHP; Stanford
• Braden Montgomery; OF/RHP
• Cody Schrier; INF; UCLA
• Tommy Troy; INF/OF; Stanford

BOBBY BRAGAN COLLEGIATE SLUGGER AWARD

• Drew Cowley, INF, Oregon
• Chase Davis, OF, Arizona
• Carter Graham, INF, Stanford
• Jacob McKeon, OF, Washington State
• Tanner Smith, OF, Oregon
• Jacob Walsh, INF, Oregon

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS

• D1 Baseball - First Team: RP Ryan Bruno (Stanford), 2B Tommy Troy (Stanford).
• Baseball America - First Team: 2B Tommy Troy (Stanford)
• Collegiate Baseball - First Team: INF Carter Graham (Stanford), SP Quinn Matthews (Stanford)
• NCBWA - First Team: INF Carter Graham (Stanford)
• Perfect Game - First Team: 2B Tommy Troy (Stanford), SP Quinn Matthews (Stanford)

AMERICAN MADE: Two Pac-12 players were part of the 26-man roster for the 2022 Collegiate National Team that represented Team USA and finished in third place at Honkbalweek Haarlem last July at  Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem, Netherlands. The final squad was named after completing the 2022 Collegiate National Team Training Camp, a five-game intrasquad series played throughout North Carolina. The roster included RP Ryan Bruno (Stanford) and RP Ross Dunn (Arizona State). 

2023 PAC-12 BASEBALL TOURNAMENT: After an exciting inaugural event last May, the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament returns to Scottsdale Stadium May 23-27, 2023 for year two at the Spring Training home of the San Francisco Giants. The tournament will look different in 2023 after the Pac-12 coaches approved format changes during the offseason.

Switching from a double-elimination format to pool play, the top nine teams in the Conference standings will earn berths to the tournament. The teams will be split into three pools based on their regular season finish with the top team from each pool advancing to the semifinals. The fourth semifinal spot will be determined by the top record of the non-advancing teams, with any tiebreakers going to the higher seed.  

The champion will receive the Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Pac-12’s current agreement with the City of Scottsdale runs through 2024.

ON DECK (Full Schedule) 

CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Expanded Standings) 

2023 Pac-12 Baseball Weekly Awards