West Coast college baseball aficionados are puffing out their collective chests one month into the season, and they have good cause. UCLA, Southern California and Oregon have combined to win 53 of their first 59 games.
Before the sport’s epicenter moved to the Southeastern Conference in the 1990s, the power resided west of the Rockies. Since Oregon State won the 2018 national championship, no other team from the West has reached the finals over eight College World Series.
The crumbling of the Pac-12 and defections of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten shook up traditionalists. For them, the fast starts by the Bruins, Trojans and Ducks are good tonic.
UCLA (17-2, 6-0) is the consensus No. 1 team, out to its best conference start since 1977 and has won 11 straight games for its longest streak since 2020. The Bruins also have the projected No. 1 pick in the MLB amateur draft in shortstop Roch Cholowsky, a rising star in slugger Will Gasparino and an ace in San Diego transfer Logan Reddemann.
USC (19-1, 5-1) set a program record with its 19-0 start, the Trojans’ longest win streak since 1955. The loss, 2-1 at Northwestern, came Saturday as it was snowing in Evanston, Illinois.
The Trojans have been nails on the mound and in the field. They lead the nation with a 1.61 ERA and 4.79 hits allowed per nine innings and are tied for first with five shutouts. Grant Govel has allowed one earned run in 33 innings (0.27) and Mason Edwards has given up one in 30 innings (0.30) and is second nationally with 52 strikeouts.
The Ducks (17-3, 5-1) have won six straight after freshman Angel Laya’s base hit in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday produced a 7-6 walk-off win over Indiana. Oregon looks like a complete team, with Drew Smith batting .450 and slugging .900 and Will Sanford leading a strong pitching staff with a 3-0 record and 1.37 ERA over 26 1/3 innings.
In the polls
UCLA, Texas and Georgia Tech are the top three teams by D1Baseball.com, Baseball America and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.
The Bruins run-ruled UC Irvine and swept Michigan at home last week. Texas (18-1) beat Texas State to improve to 16-0 and then took its first loss in the opener of its home series against Mississippi, 9-8 in 11 innings. The Longhorns won the next two to take the series. Georgia Tech (17-3) run-ruled West Georgia and took two of three at Clemson.
Unpleasant surprise for LSU
The LSU Tigers (14-7, 1-2 SEC) entered the season as defending national champions and a co-No. 1 in the preseason Top 25s, and now they aren’t even ranked.
Following a 8-0 start, the Tigers have lost seven of 13. Since losing to McNeese State on Feb. 24, LSU has dropped games to Northeastern and Louisiana-Lafayette and lost series against Sacramento State and Vanderbilt.
“Our guys take a lot of pride in this,” coach Jay Johnson said, “and they haven’t played as well as they want to, and there are some negative feelings that come along with those things. You have to get past being embarrassed or afraid to fail, and I thought there were some good steps in that direction this week.”
Jake Brown is mashing with a .419 batting average, 11 homers and 37 RBIs, but the Tigers are last in the SEC in ERA (5.24) and fielding (.964).
Cleanup spot
Notre Dame’s Noah Coy and Davis Johnson each hit grand slams in a 10-run fourth inning that led to a 14-11 win at Louisville on Friday. The Irish dropped the next two games in the series. … North Carolina has won five in a row after taking three from California for its first road sweep in two years. … Here’s something you don’t see often in the transfer portal era: Indiana’s entire starting lineup and starting pitcher in Sunday’s game at Oregon were recruited by the Hoosiers out of high school, a first in coach Jeff Mercer’s eight seasons. … West Virginia’s Maxx Yehl threw eight shutout innings in an 8-0 win over Baylor, and his 12 strikeouts were most on the road by a Mountaineers pitcher since 2019.
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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
Eric Olson, The Associated Press
