Collegiate Baseball Div. I Poll 3-10-14

SOUTH CAROLINA NO. 1 IN COLLEGIATE BASEBALL POLL

TUCSON, Ariz. — South Carolina is ranked No. 1 for the second straight week in Collegiate Baseball’s NCAA Division I baseball poll presented by Big League Chew bubble gum.

The Gamecocks (15-0) are off to their best start since the 2004 season when South Carolina opened with an 18-0 record. The Gamecocks were 5-0 last week with two wins over Stetson and a trio of victories against Brown. South Carolina’s pitching staff did not allow a run in the entire Brown series with three shutouts to extend the team’s total to eight on the year. The Gamecocks outscored Brown 22-0 with victories of 13-0, 8-0 and 1-0.

South Carolina’s pitching staff has a 1.20 ERA in 15 games with 140 strikeouts and only 30 walks in 135 innings. The Gamecocks’ bullpen has a streak of 42 consecutive innings of not allowing a run dating back to the season-opening game against Bucknell. On offense, South Carolina is hitting .320 while the defense has only committed 11 errors in 15 games. The Gamecocks have played seven errorless games.

Poll Notes: Several other teams have been red-hot. U.C. Irvine has won 9 straight, Vanderbilt 8 consecutive, Oregon St. 7 in a row, Texas Tech. 6 straight, and Louisiana St., N.C. State, Miami (Fla.) and Florida International each winning five in a row. Four teams fell out of the top 30 in San Diego (2-3 last week), Fresno St. (2-2), Kansas (1-2) and Arkansas (1-3). New to the poll is U.C. Santa Barbara (10-2), U.C. Irvine (11-3), Texas Tech. (14-3) and Texas A&M (11-5).

In key series over the past weekend, Cal. St. Fullerton lost two of three at Baylor, Mississippi St. lost three of four at the Hi Corbett Classic in Tucson, Ariz. (2 losses to U.C. Santa Barbara and 1-1 against Arizona), U.C. Santa Barbara went 3-1 in the same tournament (2 wins over Mississippi St. and 1-1 against Arizona), and Tennessee beat Arizona St. two of three in Tempe, Ariz.,

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

Collegiate Baseball NCAA Division I Poll
(As of March 10, 2014)

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LOUISVILLE SLUGGER NATIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

• RHP Javi Salas, Miami (Fla.): Salas pitched the 20^th perfect game in NCAA Division I history during a 17-0 win over Villanova. He retired all 27 Wildcat batters he faced in the 9-inning contest as he struck out six and fired 113 pitches. He became only the second Miami pitcher to ever throw a perfect game.

• RHP Chris Pike, Oklahoma City: Pike threw a 7-inning perfect game during a 5-0 win over St. Gregory’s. He struck out 18 batters and became the 20^th pitcher in NAIA history to accomplish the feat. At one point, he struck out 14 batters in a row from the second batter of the game through the top of the fifth inning. He struck out the side five times, including the top of the seventh.   

• RHP Kolton Mahoney, Brigham Young: Mahoney threw BYU’s seventh no-hitter in school history during a 5-0 win over Nicholls State. He struck out 11 batters over nine innings and walked two.

• LHP Jace Fry, Oregon St.: Fry pitched the fifth no-hitter in school history during a 2-0 win over Northern Illinois. He struck out a career-high 10 batters and allowed only two base runners on walks in the fifth and ninth innings. He threw 67 strikes in 99 pitches, and his second career shutout took just 1 hour, 46 minutes to complete, the quickest game in Goss Stadium history.

• LHP Matt Imhof, Cal. Poly: Imhof struck out a career-high 15 batters during a 4-0 win over Seattle. For the season, he has struck out 41 batters in 27 innings of work and has posted a 3-1 record with a 1.33 ERA.

• C/1B Mac James, Oklahoma: James hit .684 (13-for-19) over five games as he collected at least one hit in each game. Currently he is enjoying an 8-game hitting streak. He totaled 6 runs scored and 6 RBI. One game he was 4-for-4 and another he went 3-for-3. For the week, he had a slugging percentage of 1.000 and an on-base percentage of .714.