This Week In Pac-12 Baseball

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Pac-12 Notes

WEEKLY RECAP: Arizona and Washington, both riding win streaks, have climbed to the top of the standings table. The Huskies are now tied with Utah at the top with 9-6 league records while Arizona is hot on their tails with a 10-8 record. The Utes lost their series against Oregon State, taking one of three games from the Beavers last week. Both Arizona and Arizona State swept their Bay Area opponents, with the Wildcats taking all three games at California and the Sun Devils winning all three at Stanford. UCLA swept Oregon while USC took two games from Washington State. The Huskies had a week off from Pac-12 action and won three of four games in a matchup against St. Mary’s (Calif.).

PREVIEWING THE WEEKEND: Arizona will put its five-game winning streak on the line at USC this weekend for a series starting on Thursday. The Utes welcome UCLA for a three-game series and will look to remain atop the standings. Stanford will look to get back on track in a tough road trip to Oregon State. Washington heads to California where the Golden Bears will try to return to their winning ways while the Huskies hope to stay atop the Conference table. Arizona State hosts New Mexico in a break from Pac-12 action.

NUMBERS GAME: Oregon State leads the country in triples per game with 0.75 while Arizona is 11th in the country at 0.44 per game. The Beavers have 27 triples on the year while Arizona has 18 ... Arizona is tied for No. 23 in the country in drawing walks at 199 and it is also tied for sixth in the country in sacrifice bunts with 50 on the year. Washington tops the league with 51 sacrifice bunts and is fifth in the nation ... The league has three teams in the top 40 nationally for ERA: Stanford (No. 12, 2.93), California (No. 33, 3.36) and Arizona State (No. 39, 3.44) ... The Cardinal pitching staff has the seventh-best mark in the country for hits allowed per nine innings at 7.25 ... Stanford has the best fielding percentage in the country at 0.986 while Arizona is 15th overall at 0.978 and Washington is 19th with a mark of 0.977 ... California turns 1.05 double plays per game, the No. 11 mark in the nation while Utah turns 1.0, good for No. 20 ... Stanford has the 9th-best WHIP rating in the country at 1.17 while Washington is 26th at 1.23 and Arizona is 27th at 1.23 (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 Christian Donahue is 11th in the country in triples per game at 0.15 ... Oregon State’s Logan Ice has the 20th-best slugging percentage in the country at 0.708 ... Brett Cumberland of California is tied for 22nd in the country with 11 home runs and is 17th in slugging percentage at 0.715. Cumberland also has an on base percentage of 0.506 which is good for 15th in the nation ... Justin Behnke of Arizona is 30th in the country in base on balls, drawing 0.87 walks per game ... USC’s Jeremy Martinez is 10th in the NCAA’s ‘toughest to strike out’ category, only striking out once every 21.1 at bats ... Jack Meggs of Washington has laid down 13 sacrifice bunts on the year, the fourth-best mark in the nation ... In 22 appearances and 47.1 innings of work, Washington’s Troy Rallings has allowed only four earned runs, boasting an ERA of 0.76 which is second in the country. Rallings also has the nation’s best WHIP rating at 0.63 ... Rallings is also tied for the third-most saves in the country with 12 while Oregon State’s Max Engelbrekt is tied for the eigth-best total in the county with 10 saves on the year.

STARS DELIVERING: Preseason All-American Matt Krook of Oregon is 19th in the country in strikeouts per nine innings with 11.57. Arizona’s All-American 3B/RHP Bobby Dalbec has earned eight victories (tied for No. 1 in the country) and five saves on the year. The reigning Pac-12 home run leader has hit five home runs on the year and driven in 27 runs while scoring 31 himself. 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 38 and is tied for league-lead in doubles as well with 14.

IN THE RANKINGS: The Oregon State Beavers are the lone Pac-12 team ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll at No. 11. Arizona and California are first and second, respectively, in the ‘others receiving votes’ category. In the NCAA RPI rankings as of April 27, Arizona leads the way at No. 30, California is No. 45, Oregon State is tied for 47th, Washington is 49th and UCLA is at No. 69.

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 - Jeremy Martinez, Jr., C, USCState

Martinez, the junior catcher, was on fire at the plate this week as the Trojans went 3-1, including a Pac-12 series victory at Washington State. Martinez was .688 at the plate (11-for-16), with multi-hit outings in all four games.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK – Nathan Bannister, Sr., RHP, Arizona

Bannister had a dominant outing on the mound for the third-straight week. The senior right-hander tossed the first shutout of his career Friday night in a 3-0 win over No. 18 Cal. Bannister scattered three hits and three walks over nine innings, while striking out a career-high 11 batters.

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.

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

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