Pac-12 baseball has been full of surprising contenders in recent weeks with several unexpected outcomes in match-ups across the conference. Cal and Oregon State remain ranked in the top 25, but both teams have shown struggles in conference play which has resulted in dropped rankings.
Cal was holding strong in the national rankings, sitting in the top 20 for much of the first half of the season, but series losses at Oregon and ASU dropped them to No. 23 in the D1baseball.com poll. The Golden Bears remain at number one here because of their sweep at UCLA and the fact they are still looking solid. This weekend's series against Arizona will show if Cal's early success was a fluke.
Washington comes off the past weekend with a series win against UCLA, their first since 2005. The Huskies' consistency has been on display this season, and they've been one of the stronger teams in the conference. Their true test will come at the end of the month when they travel to Cal.
The Cardinal had a big midweek win against the Golden Bears earlier in the month then went out and got the series win against UCLA. This past weekend, Stanford took on Arizona and after losing the first two games of the series went out and fought hard in game three, beating the Wildcats with an inside-the-park home run.
Oregon State has found itself in the middle of the Pac in terms of conference play, but the Beavers still hold the best overall record. Last weekend's series loss against Washington State moves them down two spots in our poll and seven spots in D1baseball.com's overall standings to No. 14. They'll look to get back on track this weekend against Utah.
The Wildcats were swept by Utah at the beginning of the month, but have since redeemed themselves in the Pac-12 with series wins against Washington State and Stanford. Their midweek loss against ASU factors into their drop in the rankings. This weekend they will take on Cal for one of the weekend's biggest conference match-ups.
Oregon finds itself up three spots after its series win against Cal and their sweep of USC this past weekend. The Ducks will take on Oregon State Monday night, then head to UCLA for the weekend. They'll look to move up in the Pac and prove their preseason rankings weren't for nothing.
Utah is in first place in the Pac-12 with an 8-4 conference record. Utah is also one of three teams in the Pac with a sub-.500 season record. Sitting at 13-19 overall, only Washington State has done worse. The Utes move up to No. 7 because of their sweep of Arizona at the beginning of the month, but their series loss at USC keeps them out of the top five. After a weekend of non-conference play with a series win against UC Riverside, the Utes will resume Pac-12 play versus Oregon State this weekend.
ASU came out this past week and played hard against Arizona and Cal. The crucial midweek win against the Wildcats proved to be momentous enough to go out and perform against the nationally ranked Golden Bears. ASU missed out on a sweep in an extra-inning loss, but the Sun Devils are looking to further prove themselves in the conference against Stanford this weekend.
USC's series win against Utah was impressive given the way Utah has been performing, but a sweep at Oregon last weekend and a series loss against Stanford in the first weekend of April drops them towards the back of the Pac.
After being swept by Cal earlier this month, then losing two series to Stanford and Washington back-to-back, UCLA will need to use this weekend's series against Oregon to put them back on track.
Two series losses against ASU and Arizona and the worst overall record in the conference keeps Washington State at the bottom of the Pac, despite its series win against Oregon State. We'll see if they are able to get out of this last spot as they take on USC this weekend.
Related links:
Zach Dixon's complete-game shutout propels ASU baseball to series victory
ASU baseball forces extras, can't pull out the win against Cal
Reach the reporter at haley.stesiak@asu.edu or follow @haley_stesiak on Twitter.
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