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This Week In Pac-12 Baseball

Apr 6, 2016

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Pac-12 Notes

WEEKLY RECAP: Utah swept Arizona at home last weekend and has won all three of its Pac-12 series thus far, boasting a 7-2 league record. They are tied for first in the Conference with California who swept UCLA last week and is riding a six-game winning streak in Pac-12 play. Stanford has won both of its first two Pac-12 series, taking two from USC last week on The Farm. Oregon State won two of three games against Washington while Arizona State took two games against Washington State. Oregon played one game at Notre Dame and one at Michigan State with the other games against the Spartans being cancelled.

PREVIEWING THE WEEKEND: Stanford heads to UCLA for the Pac-12 Network’s Thursday Night Baseball matchup. The Bruins will look to get back on track after dropping their last two series while the Cardinal hope to continue its winning ways. The Washington schools head to the desert this weekend, with Arizona hosting Washington State and Arizona State welcoming Washington. Utah will go on the road to Los Angeles and face USC while the fellow league-leader in California will travel to Oregon to face the Ducks. Oregon State has the non-conference matchup of the weekend, squaring off against Central Arkansas.

NUMBERS GAME: Oregon State leads the country in triples per game with 0.73 while Arizona is seventh in the country at 0.55 per game. The Beavers have 19 triples on the year while Arizona has 16 ... Arizona is tied for No. 40 in the country in drawing walks at 135 and it is also 12th in the country in sacrifice bunts with 32 on the year ... The league has 3 teams in the top 30 nationally for ERA: Stanford (No. 11, 2.5), California (No. 21, 2.96) and Oregon (No. 28, 3.17) ... The Cardinal pitching staff has the ninth-best mark in the country for hits allowed per nine innings at 6.90 ... Stanford has the second-best fielding percentage in the country at 0.985 while Arizona is seventh overall at 0.982 ... California turns 1.12 double plays per game, the eighth-best mark in the country while Utah is 13th at 1.08 per game ... Stanford has the 10th-best WHIP rating in the country at 1.10 while Oregon State is 25th at 1.19 and Oregon is 26th at 1.21 (WHIP is calculated by adding the number of walks and hits allowed and dividing this sum by the number of innings pitched).

Arizona’s Jared Oliva is seventh in the country with 0.19 triples per game while Oregon State’s Christian Donahue is 10th at 0.17 and Logan Ice is 18th at 0.15 ... Ice also has the 11th-best slugging percentage in the country at 0.760 and is ranked 10th in the NCAA’s ‘toughest to strike out’ category, striking out once per 25 at bats ... Brett Cumberland of California has the No. 30 ranked batting average in the country at .410, he is tied for seventh in the country with 10 home runs and is third in slugging percentage at 0.859. Cumberland also has an on base percentage of 0.535 which is good for 11th in the country ... Justin Behnke of Arizona is 24th in the country in base on balls, drawing 0.93 walks per game ... In 15 appearances and 28.1 innings of work, Washington’s Troy Rallings has allowed only two earned runs, boasting an ERA of 0.64 which is sixth in the country. Rallings also has the fourth-best WHIP rating in the country at 0.71 ... Oregon State’s Max Engelbrekt is tied for the third-best total in the county with 10 saves on the year.

STARS DELIVERING: Preseason All-American Matt Krook of Oregon is 13th in the country in strikeouts per nine innings with 12.49. Arizona’s All-American 3B/RHP Bobby Dalbec has earned six victories (tied for No. 2 in the country) and five saves on the year. The reigning Pac-12 home run leader has hit four home runs on the year and driven in 19 runs while scoring 22 himself. California’s preseason All-American pitcher Daulton Jefferies is tied for the second-most wins in the country with six on the year and is 20th in the country in strikeouts-to-walks ratio at 7.83 (47 SO - 6 BB). KJ Harrison of Oregon State, a preseason All-American and the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, leads the Conference in runs scored with 29 and is tied for the league-lead in doubles with 11.

IN THE RANKINGS: In the latest USA Today Top 25 Coaches Poll, two Pac-12 teams are ranked. Oregon State leads the way at No. 7 and is followed by California at No. 13. The NCAA released its first RPI rankings this week and as of April 6 California leads the way at No. 34, Oregon State sits at No. 43 and Arizona is No. 44. USC is 63rd and Stanford is No. 64 while UCLA is 69th.

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 Brett Cumberland, So., C, California

Cumberland was 8-for-13 (.625) with three home runs and seven RBI over the course of the four games, all of which resulted in Golden Bear wins, and he posted a slugging percentage of 1.308 and an on-base percentage of .647.

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

Eckert moved into the Friday role for the Beavers, and posted a career-high nine strikeouts in just five innings in a 10-1 win over Washington. He held the Huskies to three hits and three walks in the win and posted two strikeouts in each of his first four innings.

Date Player Pitcher
Feb. 23 Nick Madrigal, OSU Tristan Beck, STAN
Mar. 1 Alfonso Rivas III, ARIZ Colton Hock, STAN
Mar. 8 Logan Ice, OSU Erik Martinez, CAL
Mar. 14 David Greer, ASU Drew Rasmussen, OSU
Mar. 21 Bobby Dalbec, ARIZ Kyle Molnar, UCLA
Mar. 28 Timmy Robinson, USC Ryan Hingst, ASU
April 4 Brett Cumberland, CAL Travis Eckert, OSU

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

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

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