Final Pac-10 Standings :
Conf. GB Overall
Stanford
18-6 - 41-15
Arizona
State 16-8 2.0 50-12
Washington 15-9 3.0
40-16
Arizona 13-11
5.0 35-21
USC 11-13 7.0
28-28
UCLA 11-13 7.0
28-31
California 10-14 8.0
28-27
Oregon State 7-17 11.0
25-28
Washington State 7-17 11.0 19-37
Both Arizona State and Washington recorded sweeps last
weekend to close out the regular season. In Tempe, the Devils crushed
the Arizona Wildcats by a combined score of 36-4 to claim second place in
the conference. Meanwhile, the Huskies took three straight from the
USC Trojans to put them in the tournament while at the same time, knocking
out the Trojans. USC finishes with a .500 overall record at 28-28 while
their sub-.500 Pac-10 record of 11-13 puts them in fifth place. Despite
their high RPI (in the mid 30's), the Trojans won't get in the tourney after
their miserable end to the season. The Huskies played themselves into
the tourney with a 5-1 Pac-10 record against ASU and USC to close things out.
Watch out for Washington in the tournament, they should be a dangerous
#3 seed. Arizona, despite their season-ending sweep at ASU, will be
in the tourney along with Stanford and ASU.
The Bootleg's All-Pac-10 Team :
Chad and I have put our heads together and come up with
this all-conference team. We used the same format the Pac-10 uses with
20 players on the all-conference team plus a Player of the Year, Pitcher of
the Year, and a Freshman of the Year.
Player of the Year : Ryan Garko, C (Stanford) ...
Garko finished the regular season with a .406 batting average to go with 15
home runs and 78 RBI. The senior catcher has more homers than strikeouts
(13) and is a Johnny Bench Award Semifinalist. In addition, in 24 conference
games, Garko hit .433 with ten homers and 39 RBI.
Pitcher of the Year : John Hudgins, RHP (Stanford)
... The ace of the Cardinal pitching staff, Hudgins had an outstanding campaign
compiling a 9-3 record and a 3.14 ERA. The junior righthander led the
conference in innings (123 1/3 IP) and strikeouts (110) while his strikeout-to-walk
ratio was a remarkable 4.4-to-1. Opponents are hitting just .232 against
him.
Freshman of the Year : Jeff Clement, C (USC) ...
The all-time national high school leader in homers, Clement made a big splash
in his first year in the conference. The Iowa native hit .293 with a
whopping 21 home runs (tied for the Pac-10 lead) and 53 RBI.
All-Conference Team:
1B - Jeff Larish, Arizona State (.377-16-86)
2B - Moises Duran, Arizona (.293-15-63)
3B - Conor Jackson, California (.388-10-44)
SS - Tony Calderon, Oregon State (.362-4-43)
SS - Dustin Pedroia, Arizona State (.418-4-49)
OF - Brian Anderson, Arizona (.375-14-61)
OF - Chad Boudon, Washington (.289-21-55)
OF - Andre Ethier, Arizona State (.369-9-61)
OF - Sam Fuld, Stanford (.331-2-29)
OF - Brent Lillibridge, Washington (.392-12-44)
OF - Danny Putnam, Stanford (.356-11-45)
OF - Carlos Quentin, Stanford (.384-8-50)
OF - Jeff Van Houten, Arizona (.415-11-71)
DH - Jeremy West, Arizona State (.366-17-64)
SP - Erik Averill, Arizona State (8-1, 3.48 ERA, 77 IP, 52 SO)
SP - Ben Thurmond, Arizona State (6-0, 2.87 ERA, 69 IP, 55 SO)
SP - Richie Gardner, Arizona (9-2, 3.84 ERA, 105 IP, 91 SO)
SP - Mark Romanczuk, Stanford (10-0, 3.45 ERA, 88 IP, 69 SO)
RP - Will Fenton, Washington (2-0, 0.00 ERA, 30 IP, 48 SO, 10 SV)
RP - Ryan Schroyer, Arizona State (5-2, 1.45 ERA, 8 SV)
Notes: It was definitely a hitters year in the Pac-10 with
numerous players worthy of the Player of the Year Award. It's fair
to say that there are a few guys on this list that would have won the top
honor in the conference in an ordinary year. Especially noticeable is
the number of outfielders on this list. 20 of the 23 players that we
selected play on the four tournament-bound teams. Arizona State leads
the way with seven selections, Stanford has six, Arizona with four, and Washington
has three.
"Super Sixteen" National Rankings :
Record Pvs.
1. Florida State
50-10 1
* Seminoles don't win the ACC Tournament title, but still post
a respectable 3-2 record.
2. Rice
48-10
2
* Owls wrap-up the regular season with a 2-of-3 series win of Fresno
State.
3. Cal State Fullerton
43-13 3
* Titans had the weekend off.
4. Stanford
41-15
4
* Cardinal with a sweep of Cal Poly over the weekend.
5. Nebraska
44-16
5
* Cornhuskers, winners of the regular season Big 12 title, finished
2-2 in the conference tourney this weekend.
6. Arizona State
50-12 6
* Sun Devils lost the rubber game of their series with Washington
on Monday, but came back with a convincing sweep of Arizona this weekend.
7. Texas
43-17
9
* Longhorns with an impressive weekend as they win the Big 12 Tournament
coming out of the losers bracket.
8. Long Beach
State 38-18 7
* Consecutive series losses to end
the year for the 49ers as they lost 2-of-3 at home to Miami this weekend.
9. LSU
40-19
10
* Tigers finished 3-1 in the SEC Tourney, that one loss was in
the title game though to Alabama.
10. Texas A&M
43-17 8
* Aggies started 2-0 in the Big 12 Tournament, but then lost two
straight to Texas.
11. Miami
39-14
14
* Hurricanes finish strong
with a series win at Long Beach State.
12. Georgia Tech
44-16 15
* Yellow
Jackets with a remarkable day today as they won three games (UNC, Florida
State, NC State) to claim the ACC Tournament title.
13. Baylor
41-21 16
* Bears lost in the Big 12 Tournament championship game, but still
notched a pair of victories over Nebraska to get there.
14. Mississippi
State 40-18 13
* Bulldogs won two games over Mississippi at the SEC Tournament,
but also dropped two to LSU.
15. Auburn
40-19 12
* Tigers
fall back after a 2-2 showing at the SEC Tourney which included two losses
to Alabama.
16. N.C. State
42-16 NR
* Wolf Pack started strong in the ACC Tournament (3-0 including
win over Florida State), but lost two straight including title game to Georgia
Tech to finish second.
Dropped Out
: Arizona (35-21, 0-4 last week)
NCAA Tournament Projections :
The Selection Show is tomorrow morning at 9:30am (ESPN2),
so here's one final look at my projected national seeds along with each regional
they're matched up with.
1. Florida
State (vs. Southern Miss)
2. Rice (vs. Mississippi State)
3. Stanford (vs. Auburn)
4. Cal State Fullerton (vs. Miami)
5. Texas (vs. N.C. State)
6. Nebraska (vs. Arizona State)
7. LSU (vs. Texas A&M)
8. Georgia Tech (vs. Long Beach State)
Florida State should still be the #1 national seed despite
not winning the ACC Tournament title this weekend. The Seminoles still
won 50 games this year, won the ACC Regular Season title, have the #1 RPI,
and still played well last weekend (3-2). The #2-#4 spots could really
be looked at as a toss-up. I have Stanford ahead of Fullerton despite
the Titans' sweep of the Cardinal back in early February because the Cardinal
won their conference (CSF did not) and Stanford finished red-hot (13-1 in
their last 14 as opposed to Fullerton who was swept at Riverside just three
weeks ago).
Texas and Nebraska should be the two national seeds from
the Big 12. Even though the Cornhuskers didn't even reach the Big 12
Tournament title game this weekend, they still won the regular season title
of possibly the top conference in the country. A&M probably had
the edge over Texas before this weekend (the teams finished tied for second),
but with the Longhorns taking 2-of-3 from A&M this weekend, I'll give
the edge to the Longhorns. LSU should be the only SEC team to garner
a national seed as it was a down year for this conference. The Tigers
won the regular season title and lost in SEC Tournament championship game.
This is hardly a lock though.
Georgia Tech gets the final national seed after finishing
second in the ACC during the regular season and coming out of the loser's
bracket to win the ACC Tournament this week. This is also hardly a lock.
One thing the Jackets have going for them is their RPI (#4) and their
strong finish. Long Beach State has been one of my projected national
seeds, but I think they fall out after consecutive series losses to Fullerton
and Miami to end the season. Arizona State is a possible national seed
after their sweep of Arizona this weekend. The Sun Devils finished
second in the Pac-10, but their weak non-conference schedule has translated
into a poor RPI (#21). Miami could also be in the hunt with their strong
RPI (#2) and quality series wins over Long Beach State and Georgia Tech.
The Canes though did lose a series to Jacksonville just a couple of
weeks ago and finished only 1-4-1 against Florida State this year.
Now for Stanford's sub regional. As I've stated before,
it's very likely that at least one team (a #2 or #3 seed) will be from the
midwest/south. It's likely going to be from one of the "power conferences."
A couple of possibilities include Clemson and North Carolina from the
ACC, Baylor and Missouri from the Big 12, and South Carolina, Alabama, and
Mississippi from the SEC. Other west coast teams that could be sent
Stanford's way include UNLV (a likely #2 seed), UC Riverside (a likely #3
seed), or San Diego (a likely #4 seed). Riverside seems to be a popular
choice to be placed in Stanford's regional and that would be an interesting
team to face as the Highlanders swept Fullerton a few weeks ago. The
#4 seed should either be an eastern school (a la Marist from a couple years
ago) or possibly a western team like San Diego (who won the WCC Championship
Series this weekend). Just for kicks, here is my projected regional
for the Cardinal ...
1. Stanford
2. North Carolina
3. UC Riverside
4. Central Connecticut State
Up Next for Stanford :
NCAA Regional time. The games on Friday at Sunken
Diamond are scheduled for 2pm and 6pm with the Cardinal likely playing at
6. Chad will have a full regional preview once the teams have been announced.