Florida No. 1 In Collegiate Baseball Poll

TUCSON, Ariz. — Florida (3-0) is ranked No. 1 in Collegiate Baseball’s first regular-season NCAA Div. I baseball poll presented by Big League Chew bubble gum.

The defending national champions kicked off the 2018 season by outscoring Siena 36-5 over its 3-game set. The 36 runs are the most in a 3-game series since Florida pushed across 38 runs against South Carolina in 2015. Florida collected 21 extra base hits in the series, including 14 doubles, 6 doubles and 1 triple.

Florida’s pitching was superb as the staff allowed four earned runs over three games with 30 strikeouts and only four walks. On defense, the Gators only committed two errors.

No. 3 Arkansas (3-0) also was impressive on offense as the Hogs outscored Bucknell 49-7, its largest run total over the first three games of a season since 1997.

The first nine teams in this week’s poll are the same as in Collegiate Baseball’s pre-season poll that was released last December.

Poll Notes: In key matchups to begin the 2018 college baseball season, Southern Mississippi swept a 3-game series at home against Mississippi St., Stanford swept a 3-game series at home against Cal. St. Fullerton and Mississippi swept a 3-game series at home against Winthrop. Notre Dame surprised Louisiana St. by defeating the Tigers two of three in Baton Rouge. Texas took two of three at home against Louisiana-Lafayette.

Six teams fell out of the poll which included Cal. St. Fullerton (0-3), Mississippi St. (0-3), Winthrop (0-3), Georgia Tech. (1-2), Houston (2-1) and Oklahoma St. (2-1). New to the top 30 is Texas A&M (3-0), Auburn (3-0), Arizona (3-0), Stetson (3-0), Mississippi (3-0) and Notre Dame (2-1).

The Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll. Its birth took place during the 1959 college baseball season.

Collegiate Baseball’s
NCAA Div. I Baseball Poll
(As of Feb. 19, 2018)

Presented By
www.bigleaguechew.com

Collegiate Baseball’s
National Players Of The Week

RF Trevor Larnach, Oregon St.: Larnach went 8-for-9 in three games to kick off the 2018 season as he belted 3 home runs with 2 doubles. He also delivered 7 RBI and walked four times. He reached base safely in 12 consecutive plate appearances after striking out in his first at-bat of the season.

LHP Trey Cumbie, Houston: Cumbie struck out a career-high 12 Holy Cross batters over 5 1/3 innings with only one walk.

RHP Brett Brocoff, Utah: Brocoff tied the Utah single-game record with 12 strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings against Oral Roberts in his freshman debut.

RF Eric Gilgenbach, Notre Dame: Gilgenbach went 5-for-13 with 3 home runs and 9 RBI against Louisiana St. In game three against the Tigers, he went 3-for-4 with a grand slam and 3-run homer as he collected 7 RBI during an 11-3 win for the Irish.

LHP Cody Bradford, Baylor: Bradford only allowed one hit over eight innings with one walk and eight strikeouts against Houston Baptist during a 1-0 win.

2B Chase Strumpf, UCLA: Strumpf went 7-for-10 during a 3-game series against Portland with 10 RBI and 5 runs scored. He accounted for 15 of UCLA’s 35 runs over the weekend as he posted a 1.400 slugging percentage with 4 doubles and a home run. He had a .733 on-base percentage as he also walked three times and was hit by a pitch.  

RHP R.J. Freure, Pittsburgh: Freure made two relief appearances and struck out 13 batters over 6 2/3 innings. Against St. Louis, he fanned 4 batters in 1 2/3 innings. One day later, he worked five additional innings and struck out nine.

RHP Micah Kaczor, East Tennessee St.: Kaczor struck out 12 batters in six innings of work against Northern Kentucky. He didn’t walk a single batter and gave up no earned runs.

RF Noah McGowan, Ohio St.: McGowan collected 13 RBI over 4 games as he hit two home runs and a double. Twelve of his 13 RBI came with two outs, and he had four consecutive games with at least one RBI. McGowan only had 19 RBI during the entire 2017 season.