LEADING OFF:  With three weekends left until the first Pac-12 tournament, No. 2 Oregon State has a big weekend series in Corvallis with their in-state rivals. The Beavers start the weekend in first place in the conference and winners of 15 of their last 17 games. Oregon begins the weekend two games back and tied for third. Mitch Canham’s squad already has a pair of non-conference wins in Eugene earlier this season. That includes OSU’s 2-0 win over the Ducks on Tuesday, the first time Oregon has been shut out since 2019.

No. 8 UCLA, in the midst of a season-long five-game road trip, starts the weekend a game behind Oregon in the standings. The Bruins have won eight of their 10 weekend series this season, including all three of their conference road series.  They’ll face a Washington squad that took two of three from Stanford last weekend including a walk-off wild pitch on Sunday to take the series.

No. 11 Stanford will look to bounce back from that series loss to the Huskies as they host their rivals from across the bay. The Cardinal have won nine of their last 10 home games including their last seven against conference opponents. The Bears have already won two Pac-12 road series this season and will be looking to take a series at Stanford for the first time since 2014.

Winners of eight of their last 11, Arizona looks to keep the momentum going this weekend against USC. The Wildcats are tied with Oregon for third place and have won two of their three conference road series this season. The Trojans will be looking to snap a six-game losing streak to Arizona and have not won a series against the Wildcats since 2016.

It will be a big series in Phoenix this weekend with Utah visiting Arizona State. Both the Utes and Sun Devils are currently in the top eight of the standings which would qualify for the Pac-12 Tournament but the winner of this series would have the leg up in any potential tiebreaker situation. The Utes have won their last two conference road series but have not won a series with ASU since 2017.

Washington State wraps up a seven-game homestand with a non-conference series with Utah Valley. The Cougars have been playing some of their baseball in the last week with their first series win over USC since 2014 and an upset of then No. 11 Gonzaga last Tuesday.

Rankings Roundup

• USA Today Coaches:  #2 Oregon State, #8 UCLA, #11 Stanford
• Baseball America:  #2 Oregon State, #9 UCLA, #10 Stanford, #24 Oregon
• D1Baseball:  #2 Oregon State, #8 UCLA, #11 Stanford
• Collegiate Baseball:  #3 Oregon State, #6 UCLA, #7 Arizona, #12 Stanford, #25 Oregon
• NCBWA:  #2 Oregon State, #8 UCLA, #12 Stanford, #24 Oregon, #27 Arizona
• Perfect Game:  #2 Oregon State, #9 UCLA, #17 Oregon, #22 Stanford

RPI UPDATE:  Entering Thursday, the Pac-12 had 8 teams in the top 90 in Adjusted RPI, one of only two conferences that can say that (ACC, SEC). Oregon State leads the way at No. 2 going 21-8 against Top 100 teams and 2-0 against the RPI Top 25.  

Oregon is the second highest rated Pac-12 school at No. 23 and haa the fifth toughest schedule in the country.  

UCLA has the fifth highest adjusted RPI (No. 50) among Pac-12 schools but is 10-3 against the RPI Top 50, the second best win percentage (.769) against Top 50 teams behind Tennessee (15-2, .882) – minimum 3 games

FORWARD THINKING:  D1Baseball and Baseball America both released updated projections for the Field of 64 on May 4th with both predicting five Pac-12 schools making the NCAA Tournament with two teams as regional hosts.

D1Baseball has Oregon State (No. 2 overall) and Oregon (No. 13 overall) as the two teams hosting regionals with Arizona, UCLA and Stanford as number two seeds.  Baseball America has Oregon State (No. 2 overall) and Stanford (No. 13 overall) at home for the regionals and Arizona, Oregon and UCLA as two seeds.

TICKETS ON SALE NOW!:  The inaugural Pac-12 Baseball Tournament is scheduled for May 25-29, 2022 at Scottsdale Stadium and tickets are now available at pac-12.com/tickets.  The double-elimination tournament will be spread over five days at the Spring Training home of the San Francisco Giants.

The top eight teams in the Conference standings at the conclusion of the regular season will earn berths in the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament, from which the champion will receive the Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Pac-12’s initial agreement with the City of Scottsdale runs through 2024.

HEAD OF THE CLASS:  Ten baseball student-athletes were named finalists for the 2022 Senior CLASS Award with four of them coming from the Pac-12, the most by any conference.  Oregon had two players make the list, the only school with multiple finalists, with outfielder Tanner Smith and pitcher Kolby Somers.  They’re joined by Stanford pitcher Alex Williams and Oregon State pitcher Mitchell Verburg.  The award is for players that excel on and off the field and the winner will be announced during the 2022 College World Series.

Fans are encouraged to vote through June 6 at SeniorCLASSAward.com.

HONOR ROLL:  UCLA swept the Pac-12 honors this week with Cody Schrier picking up Pac-12 Player of the Week and Max Rajcic honored as Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week.  Schrier drove in nine runs while hitting .444 in four games for the Bruins last week while Rajcic had a career high 11 strikeouts in 8.1 innings.

D1Baseball National Players of the Week

• April 5- LHP Cooper Hjerpe (OSU)

Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week

• April 25- INF/OF Wade Meckler (OSU)
• April 18- C Tyler Lozano (USC)
• April 11- C Vincent Martinez (Stanford)
• April 4- LHP Cooper Hjerpe (OSU), LHP Quinn Mathews (Stanford)
• March 21- LHP Cooper Hjerpe (OSU)
• March 14- OF Jacob Melton (OSU), C Daniel Susac (Arizona), LHP Adam Tulloch (Arizona St)
• March 7- 1B/LHP TJ Clarkson (Utah), RHP Thatcher Hurd (UCLA)
• February 28- RHP Matthew Sox (Utah)
• February 21- RHP Josh White (California)

Golden Spikes Performance of the Week

• April 4- LHP Cooper Hjerpe (OSU)
• February 28- LHP Quinn Mathews (Stanford), RHP Matthew Sox (Utah)

Dick Howser Trophy Player of the Week

• March 15- C Daniel Susac (Arizona)

Dick Howser Trophy Pitcher of the Week

• April 5- LHP Cooper Hjerpe (OSU) – Co-winner
• March 8- RHP Thatcher Hurd (UCLA) – Co-winner

Perfect Game/Rawlings Pitcher of the Week

• April 5- LHP Cooper Hjerpe (OSU)
• March 8 – RHP Thatcher Hurd (UCLA)

College Baseball Foundation Pitcher of the Week

• March 1- Quinn Mathews (Stanford)

College Baseball Foundation Shortstop of the Week

• March 1 – Nik McClaughry (Arizona)

COACHES CHOOSE CARDINAL:  The Pac-12 coaches took Stanford atop their preseason poll with the Cardinal receiving eight first-place votes for a total of 98 out of a possible 100 points.

Oregon State was second with 84 points and one first-place vote, Arizona was third with 77 points and UCLA with two first-place votes had the fourth-most points with 75.

NATIONAL AWARDS WATCH LISTS

GOLDEN SPIKES (Midseason)

• RHP Jake Brooks, UCLA
• LHP Cooper Hjerpe, Oregon State
• OF/INF Jacob Melton, Oregon State
• C Daniel Susac, Arizona

GOLDEN SPIKES (Preseason)

• OF Dylan Beavers, California
• OF Brock Jones, Stanford
• IF Ethan Long, Arizona State
• IF Sean McLain, Arizona State
• RHP Max Rajcic, UCLA
• C Daniel Susac, Arizona
• RHP Josh White, California

BUSTER POSEY (Collegiate Catcher of the Year)

• Cole Elvis, California
• Garret Guillemette, USC
• Kody Huff, Stanford
• Daniel Susac, Arizona

BROOKS WALLACE (Collegiate Shortstop of the Year)

• Josh Kasevich, Oregon
• Nik McClaughry, Arizona
• Sean McLain, Arizona State
• Keshawn Ogans, California
• Cody Schrier, UCLA

BUSTER POSEY (Collegiate Catcher of the Year)

• Cole Elvis, California
• Garret Guillemette, USC
• Kody Huff, Stanford
• Daniel Susac, Arizona

BOBBY BRAGAN COLLEGIATE SLUGGER AWARD

• OF Dylan Beavers, California
• C Cole Elvis, California
• OF Brock Jones, Stanford
• IF John Kasevich, Oregon
• OF Tanner Smith, Oregon
• C Daniel Susac, Arizona

STOPPER OF THE YEAR (Midseason)

• Holden Christian, Arizona
• Ethan Flanagan, UCLA
• Trevor Long, Arizona
• Kolby Somers, Oregon
• Alonzo Treadwell, UCLA

NCBWA STOPPER OF THE YEAR (preseason)

• Holden Christian, Arizona
• Stone Churby, Oregon
• Aaron Roberts, California
• Kolby Somers, Oregon
• Mitchell Verburg, Oregon State

SENIOR CLASS AWARD

• INF Sam Novitske, Oregon
• INF Jack Smith, Washington State
• OF Tanner Smith, Oregon (finalist)
• LHP Kolby Somers, Oregon (finalist)
• RHP Mitchell Verburg, Oregon State (finalist)
• RHP Alex Williams, Stanford (finalist)

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS

POWER PLAYERS:  Reaching roughly one-third of the way through the season, D1Baseball named their Position Power Rankings with the Top 30 at each infield position, Top 75 relievers and their Top 100 in the outfield and among starting pitchers.  The following Pac-12 players made the lists:

• Catcher:  #1 Daniel Susac (Arizona)

• First Base:  #22 Carter Graham (Stanford)

• Second Base:  #6 Travis Bazzana (Oregon State)

• Shortstop:  #21 Josh Kasevich (Oregon)

• Third Base:  #13 Ethan Long (Arizona State)

• Outfield:  #4 Jacob Melton (Oregon State), #17 Justin Boyd (Oregon State), #18 Dylan Beavers (California), #26 Colby Shade (Oregon), #28 Brock Jones (Stanford), #51 Tanner Smith (Oregon), #64 Tanner O’Tremba (Arizona), #80 Chase Davis (Arizona), #98 Joe Lampe (Arizona State)

• Starting Pitchers: #13 Cooper Hjerpe (Oregon State), #19 TJ Nichols (Arizona), #20 Thatcher Hurd (UCLA), #36 Jake Brooks (UCLA), #44 Josh White (California), #63 Quinn Mathews (Stanford), #81 Max Rajcic (UCLA), #100 Garrett Irvin (Arizona)

• Relievers:  #12 Stefan Raeth (Washington), #40 Holden Christian (Arizona), #43 Kolby Somers (Oregon), #46 Quinn Flanagan (Arizona), #60 Joey Dixon (Stanford)

PERFECT TIMING:  Perfect Game announced their Midseason Awards for this season and Oregon State lefty Cooper Hjerpe was named their Midseason Pitcher of the Year. 

Their Midseason All-American teams featured Hjerpe on the first team and two more on the second team with Arizona catcher Daniel Susac and Oregon State outfielder Jacob Melton. 

Their Midseason All-Freshman team was heavily Pac-12 influenced.  The hitters included Cal catcher Caleb Lomavita, Oregon first baseman Jacob Walsh, Oregon State second baseman Travis Bazzana and UCLA shortstop Cody Schrier.  The pitchers were a pair of Bruins with Thatcher Hurd and Ethan Flanagan.

PAC TO THE PROS:  MLB’s Opening Day saw 48 former Pac-12 stars on big league rosters.  Stanford led the way with eight former Cardinal suiting up, with Arizona State placing six big leaguers and five each for Arizona, California, UCLA and USC.

Former Sun Devil Spencer Torkelson, one of the top prospects in all of baseball, made his debut with the Detroit Tigers on Opening Day while former Beaver Steven Kwan got off to an historic start to his career.  The Cleveland Guardians outfielder reached base 18 times in his first five career games, the most in a player’s first five games in MLB’s Modern Era (since 1901).

FEELING A DRAFT:  D1Baseball released their MLB Draft Midseason Top 150 prospects with 12 Pac-12 players making the list with the rough estimate of the round they would be drafted in:

• #2- Arizona catcher Daniel Susac (1st round)

• #13- Cal outfielder Dylan Beavers (1st round)

• #30- Oregon State outfielder Jacob Melton (2nd round)

• #32- Oregon State pitcher Cooper Hjerpe (2nd round)

• #40- Stanford outfielder Brock Jones (2nd round)

• #62- Oregon shortstop Josh Kasevich (3rd round)

• #82- Oregon State outfielder Justin Boyd (4th round)

• #93- Oregon pitcher Adam Maier (5th round)

• #120- Arizona State outfielder Ethan Long (5th round)

• #137- Oregon outfielder Anthony Hall (6th round)

• #145- Arizona state infielder Sean McLain (6th round)

• #149- UCLA pitcher Max Rajcic (6th round)

AMERICAN MADE:  Seven Pac-12 players were part of the 45-man roster for the 2021 Collegiate National Team.  Normally this would include exhibitions against international opponents but instead played an 11-game intrasquad series last summer at Appalachian League ballparks.  The roster included OF Dylan Beavers (CALIFORNIA), OF Brock Jones (STANFORD), OF/1B Ethan Long (ARIZONA STATE), INF/OF Sean McLain (ARIZONA STATE), C Daniel Susac (ARIZONA) and RHP Josh White (CALIFORNIA).

NEXT GENERATION:  The Class of 2021 recruits will get their first taste of Pac-12 play this season and it was a strong class across the board for the conference.  

Baseball America ranked UCLA’s class number one in the country for the first time in their 22 years for rankings.  The class is highlighted by a pair of Top 100 pitchers in RHP Thatcher Hurd (#44) and LHP Gage Jump (#57) along with Top 100 outfielder Malakhi Knight (#72).

Three other schools made their Top 25 with Oregon State (#6), USC (#17), and Washington (#24).

ON DECK (Full Schedule) 

CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Expanded Standings) 

PAC-12 BASEBALL WEEKLY AWARDS