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Pac-12 Baseball Weekly Rundown - March 23, 2023

Mar 23, 2023

Schedule // Standings // Pac-12 Stats // Pac-12 Stats (PDF) // NCAA Statistics 

LEADING OFF: The second weekend of Pac-12 play saw No. 8 UCLA stay hot with a sweep of Arizona and No. 9 Stanford bounce back from a series loss with its first sweep of Oregon State since 2010. After taking two of three from California last weekend, USC, under first-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz, has now won its first two Pac-12 series, already matching the Trojans' total number of conference series wins from last spring.

At 12-3 overall and 5-1 atop conference standings, the Bruins are the league's highest-ranked squad in the USA Today's Coaches Poll at No. 8 and also own the nation's top RPI. 

Highlighting week three of Pac-12 action will be the first in-state rivalry series battle of the year as Arizona travels a short distance up the road to take on Arizona State for three at Phoenix Municipal Stadium. California and Oregon State will meet in Corvallis (March 24-26) in a battle of two squads still seeking their first Pac-12 series win in 2023. Washington will look to shock the Bruins in LA this weekend, while Washington State will also be in Southern California hoping it can put an end to the Trojans' strong start to league play. 

No. 9 Stanford hosts Utah for a three-game set Saturday through Monday (March 25-27) and Oregon rounds the weekend slate out with four games against Northwestern State at PK Park on its conference bye week.

The week wraps up with eight midweek games, six on Tuesday, March 28 and two on Wednesday, March 29.

RPI: 

  • The Pac-12 has the third-best RPI ranking as a conference behind only the SEC and the ACC.
  • Four Pac-12 teams sit in the top 27 of the RPI rankings through March 22. UCLA holds the top RPI ranking in the country with Oregon at No. 14, Arizona at No. 24 and Stanford at No. 27. 
  • Five more teams are in the top 100: Arizona State (82), California (90), Washington State (96), USC (98), Oregon State (100).

STACKING UP:

  • The Pac-12 has the third-best non-conference winning percentage among all conferences so far in 2023 with a 104-44-1 mark. The SEC is on top with a 213-42-1 record, followed by the ACC in second at 161-45.
  • 10 of 11 league teams are at .500 or better through five weeks of the season, while eight of 11 have winning percentages of .600 or better.

RANKINGS ROUNDUP:

QUICK HITTERS:

  • UCLA currently has the second-best ERA in the country at 2.38, trailing only Wake Forest (2.27). 
  • Arizona entered last weekend's series with the Bruins on a nine-game winning streak, but UCLA quickly put a stop to that taking all three games in LA. The Wildcats tried to rally late, scoring runs in the ninth inning in games two and three, but UCLA reliever Luke Jewett earned the save in the series-clinching 7-5 game-two win and got a pop up and a groundout with the tying run at the plate to finish off the series sweep in a 6-4 game-three win.
  • Last weekend, Stanford came from behind to win the series finale against Oregon State, securing their first series sweep over the Beavers since 2010 and first sweep over OSU at home since 2001.
  • Oregon spoiled Washington State's chance at a sweep of the Oregon schools in 2023, mounting a comeback in Sunday's series rubber match (March 19) in Pullman to win its first Pac-12 series of the season. Senior righty Matt Dallas came up big in relief for the Ducks, throwing four shutout innings and matching a career high with five strikeouts, allowing Oregon to erase a 7-1 deficit and claim a 13-7 win. The performance earned Dallas his first career Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week award and a Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week nod.
  • Arizona State went 3-1 last week, which included winning two of three games at Utah in sub-40 temperatures in the Sun Devils' Pac-12 opener, behind a sizzling offensive performance by San Francisco transfer Luke Keaschall. In four games, the second baseman hit .625 (10-for-16) with 11 RBI, eight runs scored, three doubles, three home runs and a pair of stolen bases en route to Pac-12 Player of the Week and Collegiate National Players of the Week honors. The junior has been an immediate contributor in his first season in Tempe, hitting .346 with a team-best five home runs in 2023.
  • Washington's Will Simpson, a 2022 All-Pac-12 honoree, has hit three home runs over his last four games, which included his first career two-homer game in Wednesday's midweek loss to Tulane. Simpson leads all Pac-12 hitters with nine home runs in 2023 while his 27 career home runs are tied for 10th-most all-time in program history.
  • Washington has won 26 of its last 31 games during the regular season, including 18 of the last 21 home games at Husky Ballpark.
  • At 14-6 overall, Washington State is already over halfway to its win total from a season ago (27-26) just five weeks into 2023.
  • In California's 8-7 10-inning win over USC on March 18, Preseason All-Pac-12 honoree Caleb Lomavita showed why he was a 2022 All-Pac-12 honoree as a freshman a year ago, blasting a pair of home runs, including the walk-off dinger in the 10th.
  • Washington State took two of three at Oregon State in its Pac-12 opener on the weekend of March 10, the Cougars' first series in Corvallis since 2009.
  • USC's first-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz picked up his first signature series win against then-No. 3 Stanford at home the weekend of March 10, their first over the Cardinal in eight years. USC won it's second league series against California on the weekend of March 17 to match its Pac-12 series win total from 2022.
  • Stanford junior catcher Albert Rios set a Cardinal record and matched the Pac-12 record with 11 RBIs in a 24-9 Stanford victory over CSU Bakersfield on Sunday, March 5. The 11 RBIs matched the previous Pac-12 record of 11 set by UCLA's Bill Scott vs. Washington in a game that started on March 29, 1999 and was completed on March 30, 1999 due to rain. 
  • Oregon State head coach Mitch Canham picked up his 100th career victory on Tuesday, March 7 as the Beavers beat San Diego 9-4 in Corvallis. 

NATIONAL AWARDS:

  • Collegiate Baseball National Players of the Week
    • Feb. 20 - C Josiah Cromwick, Oregon
    • Feb. 27 - RHP Trent Sellers, Oregon State
    • Mar. 6 - 1B/OF/C Kiko Romero, Arizona
    • Mar. 13 - RHP Connor Wilford, Washington State
    • Mar. 20 - RHP Dakota Hawkins, Washington State; 2B Luke Keaschall, Arizona State
  • Perfect Game National Players of the Week
    • Mar. 7 - RHP Kiefer Lord, Washington - National Pitcher of the Week

STAT LINES:

  • NCAA Top-10 Team Rankings: Batting Avg. - Arizona State (40th, .308); Hits - Arizona (46th, 212); Doubles - Arizona (5th, 55); Triples - USC (3rd, 12); Home runs - Stanford (43rd, 28); Sacrifice Flys - Washington State (7th, 16); Walks - Oregon State (13th, 128). ERA - UCLA (2nd, 2.38); Shutouts - UCLA (8th, 3); Strikeouts-Per-9 Innings - Washington State (8th, 11.8); Fielding percentage - Washington (8th, .983); Double plays - Oregon State (14th, 19). 
  • NCAA Top-10 Individual Rankings: Batting Avg. - Kiko Romero, Arizona (77th, .410); Doubles - Travis Bazzana, OSU (9th, 10); Triples - Austin Overn, USC (1st, 8); Hits - Kiko Romero, Arizona (52nd, 32); Runs - Nik McClaughry, Arizona (37th, 27); RBI - Mac Bingham (45th, 27); Sac Flys - Mac Bingham, Arizona (3rd, 5); Sac Bunts - Bruer Webster, Utah (2nd, 7); On-base percentage - Braden Montgomery, STAN (23rd, .541); Slugging percentage - Braden Montgomery (27th, .823). ERA - Kelly Austin (10th, 0.99); Saves - Chase Grillo, Washington State; Micah Ashman, Utah (6th, 5) Strikeouts - Trent Sellers, OSU (24th, 39).

WE'RE GOING STREAKING:

  • No. 8 UCLA enters the weekend with a league-high five-game winning streak. Since losing their Pac-12 opener at Oregon, the Bruins have reeled off five consecutive wins in conference play. No. 9 Stanford and Utah have the next longest streaks at three.
  • Multiple Pac-12 hitter have streaks on the line at the plate heading into the third weekend of conference play. Arizona's Chase Davis is on a league-high 11-game streak; Washington's Cam Clayton is at 10; Arizona State junior and reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week Luke Keaschall is on a nine-gamer; and Stanford's Carter Graham has an eight-game streak going.

CARDINAL PICKED TO REPEAT: For a second consecutive year the Pac-12 coaches took defending champion Stanford atop their preseason poll with the Cardinal receiving nine first-place votes for a total of 99 points.

UCLA collected the other two first-place votes to come in second with 90 points and Oregon State was in third with 77 points. Arizona (74 points) and Oregon (68 points) rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth, respectively. 

INAUGURAL PRESEASON ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM: For the first time in Pac-12 history, the conference announced a Preseason All-Pac-12 Team, voted on by the league’s coaches. 

Stanford led the way with eight selections. Preseason All-Americans Braden Montgomery (UTL), Ryan Bruno (LHP), Carter Graham (INF), Quinn Mathews (LHP) and Tommy Troy (INF) earned the honor along with Cardinal infielder Drew Bowser, outfielder Eddie Park and pitcher Joey Dixon.

The 32-person team also includes preseason All-Americans Travis Bazzana (INF) and Ben Ferrer (RHP) from Oregon State, Chase Davis (OF) from Arizona and pitcher Alonzo Tredwell of UCLA. 

Tredwell and UCLA teammate Cody Schrier (INF), both 2022 Freshman All-Americans, were two of six Bruins selected, which was second-most behind Stanford. 

FRESH (AND FAMILIAR) FACES:  The Pac-12 has a pair of new head coaches in 2023 - Washington’s Jason Kelly and USC’s Andy Stankiewicz - but neither are new to the West. 

Kelly in particular is no stranger to the Pac-12, returning to Washington to begin his head coaching career after previously spending seven years as the Huskies pitching coach from 2013-19 under Lindsay Meggs, who announced his retirement following the 2022 season. Kelly was a key part of UW’s first-ever trip to the Men’s College World Series in 2018 before stints as the pitching coach at Arizona State and last season at LSU. Kelly was also previously honored as the 2018 D1Baseball National Assistant Coach of the Year.

Stankiewicz, a former Major League Baseball player, came to USC last summer after a highly successful 11-year run at Grand Canyon in which he won five regular season Western Athletic Conference titles and was named the WAC Coach of the Year four times. Over the last two seasons, Stankiewicz guided Grand Canyon to its first ever NCAA Division I postseason appearance in 2021 then led the program to its first ever at-large bid this past season.

NATIONAL AWARDS PRESEASON WATCH LISTS

GOLDEN SPIKES

  • Chase Davis; OF; Arizona
  • Quinn Mathews; LHP; Stanford
  • Braden Montgomery; OF/RHP
  • Cody Schrier; INF; UCLA
  • Tommy Troy; INF/OF; Stanford

BOBBY BRAGAN COLLEGIATE SLUGGER AWARD

  • Drew Cowley, INF, Oregon
  • Chase Davis, OF, Arizona
  • Carter Graham, INF, Stanford
  • Jacob McKeon, OF, Washington State
  • Tanner Smith, OF, Oregon
  • Jacob Walsh, INF, Oregon

PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN TEAMS

  • D1 Baseball - First Team: RP Ryan Bruno (Stanford), 2B Tommy Troy (Stanford).
  • Baseball America - First Team: 2B Tommy Troy (Stanford)
  • Collegiate Baseball - First Team: INF Carter Graham (Stanford), SP Quinn Matthews (Stanford)
  • NCBWA - First Team: INF Carter Graham (Stanford)
  • Perfect Game - First Team: 2B Tommy Troy (Stanford), SP Quinn Matthews (Stanford)

AMERICAN MADE: Two Pac-12 players were part of the 26-man roster for the 2022 Collegiate National Team that represented Team USA and finished in third place at Honkbalweek Haarlem last July at  Pim Mulier Stadium in Haarlem, Netherlands. The final squad was named after completing the 2022 Collegiate National Team Training Camp, a five-game intrasquad series played throughout North Carolina. The roster included RP Ryan Bruno (Stanford) and RP Ross Dunn (Arizona State). 

2023 PAC-12 BASEBALL TOURNAMENT: After an exciting inaugural event last May, the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament returns to Scottsdale Stadium May 23-27, 2023 for year two at the Spring Training home of the San Francisco Giants. The tournament will look different in 2023 after the Pac-12 coaches approved format changes during the offseason.

Switching from a double-elimination format to pool play, the top nine teams in the Conference standings will earn berths to the tournament. The teams will be split into three pools based on their regular season finish with the top team from each pool advancing to the semifinals. The fourth semifinal spot will be determined by the top record of the non-advancing teams, with any tiebreakers going to the higher seed.  

The champion will receive the Conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The Pac-12’s current agreement with the City of Scottsdale runs through 2024.


ON DECK (Full Schedule

Friday, March 24    
Northwestern State at Oregon ORE Live Stream 4:05 p.m. PT
California at Oregon State Pac-12 Insider 5:35 p.m. PT
Washington State at USC USC Live Stream 6:30 p.m. PT
Arizona at Arizona State Pac-12 Arizona 7:00 p.m. PT
Washington at No. 8 UCLA Pac-12 Los Angeles  7:00 p.m. PT
Saturday, March 25    
Northwestern State at Oregon (Doubleheader) ORE Live Stream 12:05 p.m. PT & 4:05 p.m. PT
California at Oregon State Pac-12 Insider 1:35 p.m. PT
Utah at No. 9 Stanford STAN Live Stream 2:05 p.m. PT
Arizona at Arizona State Pac-12 Network/Arizona 6:00 p.m. PT
Washington at No. 8 UCLA Pac-12 Los Angeles/Washington  6:00 p.m. PT
Washington State at USC USC Live Stream 6:30 p.m. PT
Sunday, March 26    
Washington at No. 8 UCLA Pac-12 Washington 12:00 p.m. PT
California at Oregon State Pac-12 Insider 12:05 p.m. PT
Northwestern State at Oregon ORE Live Stream 12:05 p.m. PT
Washington State at USC USC Live Stream 1:00 p.m. PT
Utah at No. 9 Stanford STAN Live Stream  1:05 p.m. PT
Arizona at Arizona State Pac-12 Network/Pac-12 Arizona 4:00 p.m. PT
Monday, March 27    
Utah at No. 9 Stanford STAN Live Stream 12:05 p.m. PT
Tuesday, March 28    
California at San Francisco   2:00 p.m. PT
Portland at Washington WASH Live Stream 4:05 p.m. PT
GCU at Arizona Pac-12 Insider 6:00 p.m. PT
No. 8 UCLA at Cal State Fullerton   6:00p.m. PT
USC at UC Irvine ESPN+ 6:00p.m. PT
Arizona State at UNLV   6:05p.m. PT
Wednesday, March 29    
Oregon State at Seattle U WAC International 2:00 p.m. PT
Linfield College at Washington State WSU Live Stream 2:05 p.m. PT

CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Expanded Standings

Teams Pac-12 Record Overall Record
No. 8 UCLA 5-1 15-3
No. 9 Stanford 4-2 13-5
USC 4-2 10-8-1
Washington 2-1 14-5
Arizona State 2-1 13-8
Washington State 3-3 14-6
Arizona (RV) 3-3 13-6
Oregon 3-3 11-7
Utah 2-4 10-11
Oregon State (RV) 1-5 13-8
California 1-5 9-8

PAC-12 BASEBALL WEEKLY AWARDS

  Player Pitcher
Feb. 20 Jonah Advincula, WSU TJ Nichols, ARIZ
Feb. 27 Gavin Turley, OSU Trent Sellers, OSU
March 6 TJ Clarkson, UTAH Kiefer Lord, WASH
March 13 Kiko Romero, ARIZ Connor Wilford, WSU
March 20 Luke Keaschall, ASU Matt Dallas, ORE