Upsets Highlight Latest Weekend…

The last weekend in April saw the most series upsets of the season involving CB360 Top 50 teams. Five of eight lower ranked teams took series victories in head-to-head Top 50 matchups, while a total of 14 lower ranked teams pulled-off series upsets over the weekend.

The biggest of the upsets saw No. 3 Kentucky drop two of three games at Vanderbilt, while the West Coast Conference saw both No. 19 San Diego and No. 29 Gonzaga both drop important series to unranked conference foes.

RPI has become a hot topic in college baseball in recent weeks, but the upsets further go to show that the only RPIs that really matter are the ones that show up on Monday, May 28-Selection Monday. While RPI is, arguably, the most important number here’s our by the numbers look at another week in college baseball…

5…Teams that enter May with single digit losses: Florida State (36-7), Purdue (34-7), Baylor (38-8), Kentucky (36-9), and Appalachian State (32-9).

355…Times Georgia and Georgia Tech have met on the baseball diamond after Tuesday’s game at Turner Field in Atlanta. Nearly 20,000 were on hand to see the Yellow Jackets edge the Bulldogs 4-3.

368…Times Texas and Texas A&M have played after their weekend series, which started Friday in College Station and continued Saturday and Sunday in Austin (the Aggies took two of three games). Unless they meet in the Big 12 or NCAA postseason tournaments their 368th clash, won 2-1 Sunday by Texas, may have been their last. The longtime rivals will end their series with A&M headed to the SEC next year.

24…Game winning streak that ended when Baylor fell 4-1 to UT San Antonio Tuesday. The Bears had not lost since March 13 prior to Tuesday’s upset. Baylor is 3-4 this season vs. Southland Conference teams (Ls vs. UTSA, UT Arlington & Lamar-2) but 32-4 vs. all others.

22-2…Margin of victory of two Louisville wins over Kentucky in a two week span. The Cardinals beat the Wildcats 12-0 back on April 10 and 10-2 last Tuesday in the only two regular season meetings this season between the Bluegrass State rivals.

400…Career wins for Virginia head coach Brian O’Connor after Wednesday’s 7-5 victory over VCU. O’Connor’s career record improves to 402-144-2 after a pair of weekend wins over Miami (the series concludes Monday night on ESPNU). He has averaged better than 44 wins through eight-plus seasons. That includes a 30-14-1 mark with nine regular season games to go this year.

9,684…In attendance at Omaha’s TD Ameritrade Park Tuesday night to see Nebraska play Creighton. The Cornhuskers beat the Bluejays 4-1. The two teams play again at TDA on May 8.

The Dugout is where you’ll find authentic College Word Series shirts, hats and other gear year-round. Located right across the street from TD Ameritrade Park’s home plate entrance, they also have authentic hard to find college baseball caps of all your favorite teams.

The Dugout also has South Carolina, Florida and Clemson jerseys and other CWS apparel at drastically reduced prices! Get them now while they last, and make sure to tell ‘em you heard about it at Collegebaseball360.com!!

0…Hits allowed against South Carolina Thursday night by Alabama starting pitcher Spencer Turnbull through 7.0 innings before the game had to be halted due to severe weather. The game was resumed at 5 p.m. the next day prior to game two of the series. After Gamecock reliever Tyler Webb retired the Tide in order in the top of the 8th, South Carolina’s Adam Matthews launched the first pitch he saw from Alabama reliever Jon Keller for a home run. It was South Carolina’s only hit and only run in the 1-0 victory. The win helped propel the Gamecocks to a series sweep.

6…Runs scored in the 8th inning by LSU in Saturday’s 8-4 win over Georgia. A Mason Katz grand slam highlighted the late inning explosion and helped the Tigers clinch the SEC series. Western Division leader LSU (35-10, 14-7) shares the best record in the conference with Eastern Division leaders Kentucky (36-9, 14-7) and South Carolina (33-11, 14-7).

26…Career wins for Portland pitcher Kyle Kraus after helping the Pilots to an important 5-4 victory over No. 19 San Diego in Friday’s series opener between the two West Coast Conference teams. Kraus gave-up just two earned runs with no walks and five strikeouts in the complete game to become his program’s all-time leader in wins. Portland went on to win the series 2-1.

0.94…Oregon pitcher Alex Keudell’s ERA during his current 6-0 streak. The senior earned his 19th career win after firing a complete game in Friday’s 4-1 win over Cal. He has allowed just five earned runs in 48.0 innings during his stellar six game run.

14-7…Oregon’s record in Pac-12 play after completing a weekend sweep of Cal to move into first place in the conference standings. The Ducks (30-13) have already totaled their most conference wins since the program was reinstated four seasons ago. They travel to Tucson next weekend for a showdown series with Arizona.

2,600…All-time victories for the Arizona baseball program with Friday’s 24-7 pounding of East Tennessee State. Arizona is just the eighth school in NCAA history to reach the milestone win mark. Winning pitcher Kurt Heyer (8-1) was also the winning pitcher when Arizona notched its 2,500th victory in last year’s season opener. The Wildcats also set a program record with six triples in the game. They went on to sweep the non-conference series from ETSU.

11…Wins in as many tries by No. 9 Purdue (33-6, 13-3) in games in which ace Joe Haase (7-0) has started this season. Haase allowed just a run in 7.0 innings in Friday’s win over Michigan State. Boilermaker reliever Blake Mascarello worked 2.0 innings in that game and saw a streak of 21 straight batters retired end with a bunt single by Torsten Boss to lead off the 9th inning. The Boilermakers took the first two games of the series before falling 5-0 on Sunday-the first time they have been blanked in 2012. It’s also the Boilers’ first home shutout in three years.

5…Straight Ivy League Rolfe Division titles for Dartmouth after defeating Harvard 11-3 on Saturday. Gehrig Division champion Cornell will host Dartmouth May 5-6 in the first postseason event of the season – the best-of-three Ivy League Championship Series. The winner receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

11…Innings pitched by Gonzaga’s Marco Gonzalez in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Loyola Marymount. The sophomore struckout 15 with no walks on 139 pitches, but did not factor in the decision in the 12 inning game. Gonzalez fanned six straight at one point from the end of the 8th through the 10th inning. He was also the Bulldogs’ DH in the game, going 0-for-5 with two strikeouts of his own at the plate. LMU took two of three games from the No. 29 Bulldogs.

9…Runs allowed in three games by Vanderbilt in taking two of three games from Kentucky over the weekend to hand the Wildcats their first SEC series loss of the year. Since a 1-7 start to the season the Commodores (21-23, 9-12) are creeping closer to .500 and a potential spot in the expanded 10-team SEC Tournament field.

5…Shutout innings pitched in relief by Stanford reliever Sahil Bloom on Sunday to help the Cardinal to a 7-2 series clinching win over UCLA. Bloom entered the game right after Stanford had plated six runs in the top of the 5th inning to take a 6-2 lead. Teammate Tyler Gaffney also reached base safely all five times he came to the plate in the game. He did it with two walks, a hit by pitch, an infield single, and a triple.

8…Straight weekend series won, a school record, by New Mexico. The string includes series wins over Gonzaga and TCU. The Lobos (26-19, 12-3 MWC) have won 11 of their last 13 games and sit in first place in the Mountain West Conference heading into this weekend’s showdown at TCU (26-15, 11-4).

40…Years since Memphis had won a series against a top 10 team prior to taking two of three games from Central Florida (No. 8 NCBWA) over the weekend. The series loss is also the first of the season for UCF and also drops the Knights into second place in the Conference USA standings. Rice leads the conference with an 11-4 mark followed by UCF at 13-5. The two teams meet May 17-19 in the regular season finale for both.

2…No hitters thrown on the same day by St. Cloud State pitchers Logan Birr and Scott Lieser in Friday’s 9-0 and 19-0 wins over Minnesota Crookston. The Division II pitchers each fanned 14 and each faced 24 batters in their back-to-back no hit feat.