The Oregon State Beavers’ status in the national college baseball polls has reached its highest point of the season.
The Beavers on Monday landed in four of the six major polls — rising as high as No. 15 — after an entertaining and drama-filled weekend sweep over the Arizona Wildcats in Corvallis.
Oregon State moved up to 15th in the D1baseball Top 25, No. 19 in the Baseball America Top 25, No. 20 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 20 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top 30. The Beavers remained unranked in the Perfect Game Top 25 and Collegiate Baseball Top 30.
The Oregonian/OregonLive uses the D1Baseball poll for its rankings.
The Beavers (30-13, 14-10 Pac-12) just completed their most successful month of the season, finishing a dominant April with a 14-4 record to surge into fourth place in the Pac-12 standings. With six conference games remaining, Oregon State trails third-place Oregon (13-8) by a half-game. The teams play Tuesday night in Corvallis, but it will be a nonconference matchup and won’t count in the Pac-12 standings.
Oregon State has leaned on its pitching most of the season — it leads the Pac-12 in ERA (3.76) and runs allowed (176) and ranks third in strikeouts (406) and hits allowed (330) — but the Beavers’ bats finally came alive in April to fuel the spring renaissance.
In 18 April games, the Beavers reached double figures in hits nine times and double digits in runs eight times. And they closed the month especially hot, averaging 11.7 hits and 9.2 runs over the final 13 games. Most recently, OSU revealed a flair for the dramatic, winning three of their last six home games on walk-off singles, including two of three over the weekend against the Wildcats.
After opening conference play with a worrisome 1-5 record, the Beavers have gone 13-5, winning five of their last six Pac-12 series. The streak has thrust them into a position to finish among the top three in the conference heading into the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament and — perhaps — host a regional in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
Oregon State will play two more conference series in the regular season, hosting the Utah Utes this week and visiting the UCLA Bruins next week.
Next up: The Beavers host the 17th-ranked Ducks at 5:35 Tuesday at Goss Stadium in Corvallis.
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
