Oregon drops in D1Baseball rankings following series loss at USC
Oregon’s stock took a significant hit in the national rankings this week following a rocky weekend.
The Ducks dropped two of three games to USC in Los Angeles, including an ugly 11-4 defeat in the series finale on Sunday. They also lost a mid-week matchup to Oregon State in Corvallis.
As a result, Oregon (31-16, 14-10) dropped seven spots in the updated D1Baseball rankings and now sits at No. 24.
The Ducks are one of just three Pac-12 teams that cracked the publication’s top-25 this week.
After a chaotic weekend throughout the college baseball landscape, Stanford, the Pac-12’s top team, surged in the rankings. The Cardinal jumped from No. 7 to No. 4 after a three-game sweep of Arizona State on the road.
As a result, the Sun Devils fell out of the top-25.
Oregon State held strong at No. 15 after taking two of three games from Utah in Corvallis.
The Ducks will look to get back on track this weekend when they host Washington for a three-game series in Eugene. The opener is set for Friday at 7 p.m. The Ducks will then wrap up conference play when they hit the road for a three-game series against Utah in Salt Lake City the following week.
Currently, Oregon sits in fourth place in the conference standings.
Stanford (31-13, 18-6) has a commanding lead over second-place Arizona State (29-18, 14-9) and Oregon State (33-14, 16-11).
The Ducks will hope to have Friday night starter Jace Stoffal available next week after the junior right-hander missed his start for undisclosed reasons last weekend.
The Ducks’ ace was scratched from his start on Friday for undisclosed reasons and freshman Leo Uelmen started in his place.
Stoffal is 6-2 on the year with a 2.83 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 57 1/3 innings. He boasts the third-best ERA in the conference and leads the Pac-12 with a .184 opposing batting average.
Oregon is also hoping for a healthy return from junior righty Isaac Ayon, who was projected to be the program’s Friday night starter before the season began. But Ayon has been sidelined with an injury all spring and has yet to pitch an inning in 2023.
New-look top 25 rankings from D1Baseball
- Wake Forest (39-7)
- LSU (37-10)
- Arkansas (36-12)
- Stanford (31-13)
- Vanderbilt (34-13)
- South Carolina (36-11)
- Florida (37-12)
- Coastal Carolina (30-16)
- UConn (35-11)
- Duke (32-13)
- Miami (31-16)
- West Virginia (36-12)
- Campbell (36-10)
- East Carolina (34-14)
- Oregon State (33-14)
- Clemson (31-17)
- Kentucky (33-13)
- Dallas Baptist (36-12)
- Maryland (33-16)
- Boston College (30-16)
- Virginia (37-11)
- UTSA (36-12)
- Tennessee (32-16)
- Oregon (31-16)
- Southern Miss (32-15)
