This Week In Pac-12 Baseball

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Pac-12 Notes

WEEKLY RECAP: Utah gained a game of separation from the Huskies due to the Utes taking two of three from Stanford while the Huskies only won one of three games against Washington State. Arizona State won its series against Arizona, winning two games in Tucson. Oregon took two games from Oregon State to win the series while USC earned two victories over UCLA to claim the series win. California dominated Northwestern, winning all four games by double digits.

PREVIEWING THE WEEKEND: With two weeks left in league play, 10 teams can still win the Conference title. Arizona heads to Oregon for its final Pac-12 matchup of the season. The Pac-12 Networks will broadcast all three games in Eugene. Stanford heads to Washington for a three-game series while Arizona State heads to UCLA. USC hosts Oregon State in a three-game series that will be shown live on the Pac-12 Networks. Utah heads to California for Saturday-Monday three-game series and all three matchups will be shown on the Pac-12 Networks.

NUMBERS GAME: Oregon State has 30 triples on the year, the third-best total in the country while Arizona has the eighth-most with 22 ... Arizona is tied for No. 23 in the country in drawing walks at 246 and it is also tied for seventh in the country in sacrifice bunts with 62 on the year. Washington tops the league with 67 sacrifice bunts and is second in the nation ... The Cardinal pitching staff has the 17th-best mark in the country for hits allowed per nine innings at 7.77 ... California turns 1.11 double plays per game, the No. 6 mark in the nation ... Four Pac-12 teams rank in the top 33 in the nation in WHIP with Arizona leading the way at No. 21 (1.27), Washington is No. 25 (1.24), Stanford is 28th (1.25) and Oregon State sits at No. 33 (1.27) (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 fifth in the nation with 22 doubles on the year ... USC’s Jeremy Martinez is 12th in the NCAA’s ‘toughest to strike out’ category, only striking out once every 18.6 at bats ... Fellow Trojan David Oppenheim has the No. 18 ranked on base percentage in the country at 0.498 ... Jack Meggs of Washington has laid down 18 sacrifice bunts on the year which is the best mark in the nation ... In 26 appearances and 58.1 innings of work, Washington’s Troy Rallings has allowed only four earned runs, boasting an ERA of 0.62 which is tops in the country. Rallings also has the nation’s best WHIP rating at 0.67 ... Also in the top-15 in the country in WHIP is Nathan Bannister of Arizona who is 13th at 0.92 ... Rallings is also tied for second in the nation in saves with 16 and Oregon State’s Max Engelbrekt is tied for the 29th-best total in the county with 10 saves on the year.

STARS DELIVERING: Preseason All-American Matt Krook of Oregon is 18th in the country in strikeouts per nine innings with 11.47. Fellow Duck and preseason All-American Stephen Nogosek has 13 saves on the year, tied for the fiftth-best tally in the nation. Arizona’s All-American 3B/RHP Bobby Dalbec has earned eight victories (tied for No. 1 in league and No. 34 in the country) and seven 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 33 himself. KJ Harrison of Oregon State, a preseason All-American and the reigning Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, is second 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 is No. 29 and Arizona State is 30th. In the NCAA RPI rankings as of May 18, Arizona sits at No. 24, Arizona State is 37th, Washington is 53rd, California is 54th and Oregon State sits at 63rd. 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 – Brett Cumberland, So., C, California

Cumberland played a big part in Cal outscoring Northwestern, 44-5, through the first three games of the four-game series that ends on Monday. He now has 15 home runs on the season, which leads the Pac-12. His 47 RBI are also tops in the conference.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK – Ian Hamilton, Jr., RHP, Washington State

Hamilton pitched six impressive innings to lead the Cougars to a series-clinching victory at No. 14 Washington Saturday. Hamilton struck out four and allowed just two earned runs on five hits.

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