The Oregon State baseball team didn’t just lose a series over the weekend — it also lost a little ground in the national rankings.
The Beavers on Monday were a near-unanimous No. 2 in the college baseball rankings, landing a second-ranked spot in five of the six major polls and dropping to No. 3 in another. Oregon State had been ranked as high as No. 1 in half of the polls last week.
But after watching the Beavers lose two of three games at Arizona over the weekend, pollsters elevated the Tennessee Volunteers — who led the nation with 45 wins — back into the top spot in all six polls.
Oregon State (40-11) earned No. 2 rankings in the D1Baseball Top 25, the USA Today Coaches Poll, the Baseball America Top 25, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Top 30 and the Collegiate Baseball Top 30. It’s ranked third in the Perfect Game Top 25.
The Oregonian/OregonLive uses D1Baseball for its rankings.
The weekend started well enough for the Beavers, who beat the Wildcats 12-9 in Friday’s series opener. It was their eighth consecutive win and gave them a three-game cushion atop the Pac-12 standings.
But things went south from there, as Oregon State fell 5-2 on Saturday and then blew a 5-1 lead in a 10-5 loss in Sunday’s rubber match in Tucson, Arizona. It’s the first time this season Oregon State has suffered consecutive losses and just the second time it has lost a series.
More importantly, the Beavers perch atop the Pac-12 standings fell to just one game — with three left — over second-place Stanford. Oregon State ends the regular season with a three-game series against third-place UCLA at Goss Stadium, while the Cardinal hosts last-place USC.
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.