Seventh-straight week Oregon State leads Pac-12 Baseball, Nation – Pac-12.com

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BY THE NUMBERS

7 – For the seventh-straight week Oregon State tops the national rankings in the USA Today poll, NCWBA poll, Collegiate Baseball poll, and the Baseball America poll.

2 – The magic number for Oregon State Baseball to clinch the Pac-12 title, as well as the number of wins head coach Pat Casey needs to reach his 1,000th career win.

11, 13 – For the eleventh-straight USA Today poll and thirteenth-straight NCBWA poll Oregon State and Arizona are ranked. The two teams have been ranked since the preseason poll for both polls.

4 – Four Pac-12 athletes appear on the NCBWA Midseason Stopper of the Year Watch List, the second most of any conference: Colton Hock, STAN; Erik Martinez, CAL; Jake Mulholland, OSU; Kenyon Yovan, ORE.

5, 5 – Pac-12 teams lead in the nation in five statistic categories. All five are held by No. 1 Oregon State, inlcuding ERA (1.99), hits allowed per nine innings (6.31), shutouts (9), WHIP (0.99), and WL percentage (0.905). Five individual Pac-12 players also top the national statistics.

NOTES

WEEKLY RECAP: No. 1 Oregon State leads the nation for the seventh-straight week after going 3-0 against California. UCLA (vs. USC) and No. 18 Arizona (vs. Washington) also went 3-0 for conference play. No. 13 Stanford (vs. Arizona State) and Washington State (vs. Oregon) went 2-1 for conference play. UC Riverside bested Utah in two of three games for the weekend. On Tuesday, Washington lost to Seattle, Utah beat BYU, UCLA lost to No. 15 Cal State Fullerton, Stanford beat San Francisco, Oregon lost to Portland, and Arizona State beat Arizona to round out the games for the week.

PREVIEWING THE WEEK: No. 1 Oregon State starts a three-game series on Thursday at Oregon. The Beavs are two games away from clinching the Pac-12 Championship title, which will be head coach Pat Casey’s 1,000th career win. No. 18 Arizona travels to the College of Charleston for a three-game series for the non-conference matchup of the weekend. Arizona State travels to Washington, UCLA travels to Washington State, USC travels to Utah, and No. 13 Stanford travels to California for the three-game series’ of the weekend. On Tuesday, Arizona State travels to Seattle, No. 1 Oregon State hosts Portland, and Washington State travels to Gonzaga.

NUMBERS GAME: No. 1 Oregon State currently leads the nation in five statistics categories: ERA (1.99), hits allowed per nine innings (6.31), shutouts (9), WHIP (0.99), and WL percentage (0.905). Oregon State is also seventh in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.71). No. 18 Arizona is 12th in batting average (0.317), sixth in doubles (110), sixth in doubles per game (2.34), eighth in on base percentage (0.410), seventh in runs (391), and sixth in scoring (8.3). Washington is third in fielding percentage (0.983). UCLA is seventh in sacrifice flies (29). Oregon is seventh in shutouts (9) and second in strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.71). Oregon is sixth in walks allowed per nine innings (2.37).

INDIVIDUAL NATIONAL STATS LEADERS: Arizona’s JJ Matijevic is second in batting average (0.415), second in doubles (24), first in doubles per game (0.51), second in hits (80), third in hits per game (1.70), and sixth in total bases (131). Arizona’s Jared Oliva is fourth in doubles (22) and sixth in doubles per game (0.47). Oregon State’s Luke Heimlich is first in earned run average (ERA) (0.71). sixth in hits allowed per nine innings (4.99), and second in WHIP (0.77). Oregon State’s Jake Thompson is fifth in ERA (1.20) and tied for first in victories with Oregon’s David Peterson (10). UCLA’s Griffin Canning and Arizona State’s Eli Lingos are tied for fifth in games started (5). UCLA Justin Hooper is seventh in hit batters (15). Arizona’s Alfonso Rivas is fifth in on base percentage (0.502). UCLA’s Scott Burke is third in pitching appearances (30). Stanford’s Colton Hock and Oregon’s Kenyon Yovan appear as second (14) and sixth (13), respectively, in saves. Oregon’s Peterson is second in strikeouts (117) fifth in strikeouts per nine innings (12.95), and fifth in walks allowed per nine innings (0.89). Arizona State’s Gage Canning is first in triples (7) and first in triples per game (0.16). 

STOPPER OF THE YEAR: The Pac-12 has four student-athletes from four different universities on the NCBWA Midseason Stopper of the Year Preseason Watch List, the second most among all conferences: Stanford’s Colton Hock, California’s Erik Martinez, Oregon State’s Jake Mulholland, and Oregon’s Kenyon Yovan. 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 13th straight year in 2017. 

GOLDEN SPIKES: The 40 man USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Midseason Watch List features five Pac-12 student-athletes, two from Oregon State, and one from UCLA, Arizona, and Oregon: Oregon State’s junior pitcher Luke Heimlich and sophomore infielder Nick Madrigal, UCLA’s junior pitcher Griffin Canning, Arizona’s junior infielder J.J. Matijevic, and Oregon’s junior pitcher David Peterson.

The USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Preseason Watch List features 50 amateurs, seven of which are student-athletes from four different Pac-12 teams. With seven, the Pac-12 has the third-most representatives among all conferences. Stanford leads the way for most representatives by one team, with three Cardinal student-athletes featured, tying Florida and TCU. 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. 

ALL AMERICANS: The Pac-12 had eight different student-athletes from four different Pac-12 teams featured on Baseball America, NCBWA, and Collegiate Baseball preseason All-America teams.

DRAFT: Every Pac-12 school had at least one student-athlete drafted in the 2016 MLB Draft: Arizona (7), Arizona State (5), California (7), Oregon (5), Oregon State (5), Stanford (4), UCLA (5), USC (12), Utah (1), Washington (3) and Washington State (3). ASU leads all NCAA schools with 414 total MLB draft picks, and at least one Sun Devil has been drafted every year since the draft’s inception in 1965.

FAMILIAR FACES IN THE DUGOUT: After welcoming three new coaches last season, all 11 coaches return for the 2017 season. Second year Arizona head coach Jay Johnson looks to match or beat his performance last season. The Wildcats made it all the way to Game 3 of the NCAA College World Series before falling to Coastal Carolina. Three other Pac-12 teams also made it to the postseason- Arizona State, Utah, and Washington.