Clemson ranked 6th, 12th in baseball polls |
ARIZONA ST. NO. 1 IN COLLEGIATE BASEBALL NEWSPAPER POLL
TUCSON, Ariz. - Arizona St. is ranked No. 1 for the second straight time in "Collegiate Baseball" newspaper's NCAA Division I baseball poll. The Sun Devils (20-0) swept a 3-game series at home against Houston and won two mid-week games at Cal. St. Fullerton during the past week. The 20 straight wins to kick off the season is the second best beginning in school history and only trails the 21-0 start during the 1961 season. Arizona St. is hitting .362 as a team and scoring 9.7 runs per contest. Sun Devil catchers have only allowed eight stolen bases over 20 games. The pitching staff has a 2.97 ERA and have struck out 187 batters with 57 walks. Poll Notes: Several other schools have been red hot. UCLA continues to roll with a perfect 16-0 record. The Bruins are off to their best start in history. Arizona has won 11 straight games, South Carolina 10 in a row while Oregon St. has won 8 straight, Virginia 5 in a row and Florida 5 consecutive. Three teams fell out of the poll this week in Kansas (0-4 last week), New Mexico (1-2) and Kentucky (2-3). New to the poll is Arizona (16-4, 11 straight wins), U.C. Irvine (13-6), and Auburn (14-5, 5 consecutive victories). The "Collegiate Baseball" newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll. Its birth took place during the 1957 college baseball season.
Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's
"LOUISVILLE SLUGGER'S" NATIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK
* RF Jake Plata, Akron: Plata hit 5 home runs, including his first
career grand slam, while driving in 15 runs over 6 games last week. He
also scored 10 runs as he went 11-for-32 at the plate.
* OF Devin Harris, East Carolina: Harris belted 5 home runs with 12
RBIs over five games last week. He also hit 4 doubles and had a 1.429
slugging percentage. He also swiped two of three bases.
* LHP Teddy Kaufman, South Florida: Kaufman turned in a career effort
with
14 strikeouts in 9 innings as he blanked Central Florida, 4-0. He
scattered
4 hits and walked 2 against a UCF lineup that had scored 57 runs in
its previous 3 games. Kaufman's previous high strikeout number was 11
one year ago against Florida A&M.
* LHP Casey Harman, Clemson: Harman pitched 7 1/3 near-perfect innings
in Clemson's 3-0 win over a hot-hitting Virginia Tech team. He took a
no-hitter into the sixth inning when he gave up a 2-out single up the
middle. He allowed just one hit, no runs and 3 walks with 4 strikeouts
to earn the win against a team that entered the game with a .354
batting average and was averaging over 9 runs per game. He did not
allow a baserunner past second base.
Baseball America
DURHAM, N.C. -- Virginia swept ACC foe Boston College over the weekend to finish a perfect week and remain at No. 1 in the Baseball America Top 25 rankings for the fifth straight week.
While Virginia continued its dominance, the real story of the week came from a pair of Pac-10 squads that have been perfect over the season's first month. Arizona State has started the season 20-0 and last week swept a two-game midweek series at Cal State Fullerton then swept Houston over the weekend to move up to the third spot in the rankings. Meanwhile, UCLA is 16-0 and swept Oral Roberts last weekend, earning the Bruins a place in the top 10 at No. 9.
Florida was another big mover at the top of the rankings. The Gators won a midweek game against rival Florida State, then swept Mississippi State in the opening weekend of Southeastern Conference play, allowing them to jump to No. 2. Mississippi was another SEC school to move up after a big opening weekend in conference play, as the Rebels went on the road to then-No. 22 Kentucky and took two out of three, helping them reach No. 18 and knocking the Wildcats out of the rankings.
Three teams joined the rankings for the first time in 2010. Alabama opened conference play with a series win against Vanderbilt to enter the rankings at No. 20. Western Kentucky also faced the Commodores last week, splitting a midweek series, before sweeping Virginia Commonwealth over the weekend, earning itself the No. 22 ranking. And finally, Texas A&M won its opening series of Big 12 play against Texas Tech, joining the rankings at No. 23.
The staff of Baseball America determines the Top 25 rankings. Records indicated are through games of March 21 and do not include ties.
Rk. Team W-L Last Prev. 1. Virginia 17-3 5-0 1 2. Florida 16-3 5-0 6 3. Arizona State 20-0 5-0 10 4. Georgia Tech 16-2 3-1 3 5. Texas Christian 15-3 3-1 4 6. Florida State 15-4 2-2 5 7. Louisiana State 16-3 3-1 7 8. Texas 15-5 2-2 2 9. UCLA 16-0 3-0 12 10. Coastal Carolina 17-3 2-1 8 11. Louisville 17-2 3-1 9 12. Clemson 17-2 4-1 11 13. UC Irvine 13-6 4-0 15 14. South Carolina 16-4 5-0 16 15. Miami 14-5 4-1 17 16. Arkansas 13-5 1-2 13 17. Oregon State 14-3 4-0 18 18. Mississippi 15-5 3-1 21 19. Stanford 10-4 3-0 23 20. Alabama 16-2 4-1 NR 21. Oklahoma 18-2 3-0 25 22. Western Kentucky 16-5 4-1 NR 23. Texas A&M 15-4 2-1 NR 24. Vanderbilt 16-4 2-3 19 25. Rice 12-9 2-2 14 Dropped Out: East Carolina (20), Kentucky (22), North Carolina (24)
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