Collegiate Baseball Div. I Poll 3-31-14

SOUTH CAROLINA NO. 1 IN COLLEGIATE BASEBALL POLL

TUCSON, Ariz. — South Carolina is ranked No. 1 for the fourth time in the last five weeks in Collegiate Baseball’s NCAA Division I baseball poll presented by Big League Chew bubble gum.

Louisiana-Lafayette, ranked No. 1 last week, slipped to second after losing once to Western Kentucky. The Ragin’ Cauns have still won 16 of their last 17 games.

South Carolina (24-3) has won six straight and is tied for first in the Southeastern Conference with a 6-3 record. The Gamecocks swept a 3-game series at home against Tennessee over the past weekend. With two shutouts last week, South Carolina now has 11 on the season which is just three shy of the school record of 14 set in 1974. The pitching staff leads the SEC with a 1.75 ERA. The team has 23 errors in 27 games and is hitting .301 on the season.

Poll Notes: Several other teams have been red-hot. Washington has won 10 straight and 17 of its last 18 as the Huskies rank No. 1 in the Pac-12 with an 8-1 record. Over the past weekend, Washington swept a 3-game series at Southern California. Florida has won 13 of its last 16, including 4 straight with a trio of wins over Louisiana St. at home over the past weekend and a mid-week win over Florida St. Virginia has been outstanding with six straight wins while Cal. Poly has won five in a row.

Seven teams fell out of the top 30 this week in Tennessee (0-3 last week), North Carolina (0-4), Maryland (0-2), Virginia Commonwealth (0-1), N.C. State (1-3), Baylor (0-3)and Florida International (2-2). New to the top 30 this week is Florida, Miami, FL (won three straight at N.C. State), Alabama (swept three from Mississippi), Arizona St. (won 5 of last 6 and captured last two weekend series against Oregon St. and UCLA), Indiana (leading the Big Ten with a 5-1 record), Pepperdine (won 7 of last 8) and Oklahoma (won 2 of 3 at Kansas and leads the Big 12 with a 4-2 record).

In other key series over the past weekend, Vanderbilt won two of three at home against Kentucky, Oregon lost two of three at Stanford, Mississippi St. won two of three at home against Arkansas and North Carolina was swept three straight at Duke (the first time the Blue Devils have swept the Tar Heels since 1994).

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 31, 2014)

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   LOUISVILLE SLUGGER NATIONAL PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

• 1B/LHP Clinton Freeman, East Tennessee St.: Freeman belted 4 home runs, 2 doubles and went 8-for-10 at the plate over a 3-game series against Northern Kentucky. He also scored 6 runs, 9 RBI and had a slugging percentage of 2.200 with an on-base percentage of .769. If that wasn’t enough, the southpaw pitcher earned 2 saves in 3 innings of work with 2 strikeouts.   

• LHP Matt Imhof, Cal. Poly: Imhof struck out 13 batters during an 8-0 win over U.C. Davis with no walks. It marked the fourth time he has reached double digit figures in strikeouts in seven starts this season. He retired the side in order seven times.   

• SS Sam Bumpers, Lamar: Bumpers hit 4 home runs with 2 doubles, 7 runs scored and 7 RBI as he went 14-for-20 over 4 games last week. At one point against McNeese St., he went 7-for-7 with 3 home runs.

• 1B Matt Tellor, Southeast Missouri: Tellor belted 4 home runs with 11 RBI over 4 games last week as he collected 11 RBI. He hit three of his home runs during one game against Tennessee-Martin.  

• RHP Drew Van Orden, Duke: Van Orden struck out 12  North Carolina batters with no walks in eight innings during a 3-2 win by the Blue Devils. He had a strikeout in every inning except the third and fanned the side in both the fifth and eighth frames. He retired 16 of the final 17 batters he faced, allowing only an infield single in the sixth during that span.