This Week In Pac-12 Baseball

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Pac-12 Notes

WEEKLY RECAP: Utah and Washington remain tied at the top of the league standings with both taking two out of their three Pac-12 games last weekend. The Utes were able to win two at home against UCLA while Washington went to California and won two games. Oregon State won two games against Stanford to take the series and are just one game back of the leaders in the standings. USC protected its home field and won two of three against Arizona while Oregon won two of three in its series in Eugene, Ore., against Washington State. Arizona State swept New Mexico in its non-conference matchup.

PREVIEWING THE WEEKEND: The Bay Area schools clash in a three-game series starting on Thursday. All three games will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks. Washington and USC square off in Los Angeles. The Oregon schools head to the desert where Oregon will face Arizona State and Arizona hosts Oregon State The entire series between the Wildcats and Beavers will also be televised on the Pac-12 Networks. Utah heads to Washington State for a three-game series broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks starting on Saturday. UCLA has a week off from league play and will play two games at home and one away against UC Irvine.

NUMBERS GAME: Oregon State leads the country in triples per game with 0.70 while Arizona is 14th in the country at 0.41 per game. The Beavers have 28 triples on the year while Arizona has 18 ... Arizona is tied for No. 16 in the country in drawing walks at 220 and it is also tied for seventth in the country in sacrifice bunts with 53 on the year. Washington tops the league with 56 sacrifice bunts and is fifth in the nation ... The league has three teams in the top 31 nationally for ERA: Stanford (No. 21, 3.11), Arizona State (No. 28, 3.29) and California (No. 31, 3.31) ... The Cardinal pitching staff has the 13th-best mark in the country for hits allowed per nine innings at 7.42 ... Stanford has the best fielding percentage in the country at 0.986 while Arizona is 12th overall at 0.979 and Washington is 15th with a mark of 0.978 ... California turns 1.03 double plays per game, the No. 13 mark in the nation ... Stanford has the 18th-best WHIP rating in the country at 1.20 while Washington is 25th at 1.24, Oregon State sits at 28th with a mark of 1.24 and Arizona is 31st at 1.26 (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 17th in the country in triples per game at 0.14 ... Oregon State’s Logan Ice has the 23rd-best slugging percentage in the country at 0.667 and the 23rd-best on base percentage at 0.494 ... Brett Cumberland of California is tied for 21st in the country with 12 home runs and is 15th in slugging percentage at 0.694. Cumberland also has an on base percentage of 0.491 which is good for 28th in the nation ... USC’s Jeremy Martinez is seventh in the NCAA’s ‘toughest to strike out’ category, only striking out once every 19.9 at bats ... Jack Meggs of Washington has laid down 14 sacrifice bunts on the year, the second-best mark in the nation ... In 24 appearances and 53.0 innings of work, Washington’s Troy Rallings has allowed only four earned runs, boasting an ERA of 0.68 which is tops in the country. Rallings also has the nation’s best WHIP rating at 0.64 ... Rallings is also tied for second in the nation in saves with 14 and Oregon State’s Max Engelbrekt is tied for the 13th-best total in the county with 10 saves on the year.

STARS DELIVERING: Preseason All-American Matt Krook of Oregon is 22nd in the country in strikeouts per nine innings with 11.45. Fellow Duck and preseason All-American Stephen Nogosek has 11 saves on the year, tied for the sixth-best tally in the nation. Arizona’s All-American 3B/RHP Bobby Dalbec has earned eight victories (tied for No. 10 in the country) and six saves on the year. The reigning Pac-12 home run leader has hit five home runs on the year and driven in 29 runs while scoring 32 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 43 and is second in the league in doubles as well with 14.

IN THE RANKINGS: The Oregon State Beavers remain the lone Pac-12 team ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll at No. 13. California, Arizona, Washington and Arizona State are also receiving votes. In the NCAA RPI rankings as of May 4, Washington leads the way at No. 32, Arizona sits at No. 33, Oregon State is 41st, California is 48th and Arizona State is No. 59.

COMPLETE CAMPAIGN: Pac-12 students are known for their success on the field, but they are also impressive, complete people with outside interests, diverse backgrounds, extracurricular activities, interesting families, busy schedules, and full lives: Arizona State’s Ryan Hingst, a sophomore accounting major, made his first career Pac-12 start on March 25 and threw the 10th no-hitter in school history. The game ended around 8:30 pm, but there was no time to celebrate as he had two accounting quizzes to finish by midnight. He did well on both.

Logan Ice and Caleb Hamilton of Oregon State have been particularly active in the community, working with the Boys and Girls Club. They work with the Student‐Athlete Advisory Committee and took a visit to the Veterans Center during the fall along with other members of the team.

Several players on Utah’s squad have unusual rituals or superstitions. Kody Davis: Puts his pants on both legs at a time. Jayson Rose: Listens to Ellie Goulding on gameday. Josh Tedeschi: Gets a slurpee before games and chews grape bubblicious bubble gum. Several players won’t wash their batting practice tops if the team is on a winning streak.

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 – Kort Peterson, Jr., OF, UCLA

Peterson started all four games for UCLA this week, one at DH, two in right field and one in left field. The junior went 6-for-17 (.353) with one double, two triples, two runs and 11 RBI. Peterson drove in multiple runs in three of his four games.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK – Kevin Ginkel, Jr., RHP, Arizona

Ginkel had his most complete performance of the season in Tuesday night’s 8-0 win over rival Arizona State in Phoenix. The junior tossed a two-hit shutout and did not issue a walk while striking out seven in the complete game. Ginkel retired the first 18 Sun Devils he faced, carrying a perfect game into the seventh 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.

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
Bobby Dalbec, ARIZ
Stephen Nogosek, ORE
Max Engelbrekt, OSU
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