By: Aaron Kirby
For the second week in a row there is a new #1. TCU (11-6) moves up 2 spots to take over the top spot. The Horned Frogs had a perfect 5-0 week, beating Texas Tech on Tuesday, winning at UTSA Wednesday and sweeping UNLV on the road to open Mountain West play.
RISING
- Dallas Baptist (13-6) moves up 1 spot to #7 after an impressive 4-0 week. On Tuesday the Patriots scored 4 runs in the bottom of the 9th to pick up a big win over Oklahoma 7-6. The Patriots then headed east to Charlotte, NC where they took all 3 games from Charlotte.
- Pepperdine (14-5) also moves up 1 spot to #8 with a 3-1 week. The Waves beat UC-Irvine 3-2 at Dodger Stadium Tuesday, beat Columbia Wednesday and split the 2 games they got in with Kent St. Pepperdine and Kent St will play the 3rd game of series on Monday due to rain in California this weekend.
- Florida Atlantic (14-5) jumps up 7 spots to #10 with a 4-0 week. After beating Fordham Tuesday the Owls traveled to rival Florida International and swept the opening Sun Belt series at FIU by the scores of 5-1, 9-5, and 9-3.
- Appalachian St (17-3) continues to play very good baseball and climbs 2 spots to #11. The Mountaineers picked up a 6-3 win at Duke on Tuesday before traveling to South Carolina on Wednesday. After scoring 4 runs in the top of 1st vs the Gamecocks the Mountaineers were unable to hold on and lost 6-4. App St then swept Citadel in Boone over the weekend in Southern Conference play.
- Liberty (20-3) moves up 1 spot to #15 with a 4-1 week. The 20 wins is good for #2 in the country behind only Kentucky at 21-0. The Flames lost to Bryant Tuesday, beat James Madison Wednesday and swept their opening series in the Big South at Presbyterian.
- Western Carolina (15-5) moves up 5 spots to #19 after a 3-1 week. The Catamounts picked up a big 8-4 win over Clemson Wednesday then headed to Jacksonville, Fl for the Wingate Invitational. WCU dropped the opening game 5-2 to Jacksonville Friday night, beat Jacksonville 2-1 Saturday and beat Fairfield 10-3 on Sunday.
- A few clubs had good weeks but due to other teams also having good weeks around them, did not move in rankings. #4 Purdue (14-3) stayed on the road in week 5 picking up a 4-2 win at Missouri St mid week and split 4 games at Wichita St over the weekend……#5 Missouri St (15-4)dropped the mid week game to Purdue then travel to Oral Roberts and won three out of four games……#6 Louisville (14-6) split 2 mid week games vs Ole Miss and swept Ball St on the weekend.
FALLING
- Texas St (13-6) dropped one spot to #2 with a 2-2 week. The Bobcats lost 6-1 at Texas on Tuesday and won 2 of 3 vs Stephen F. Austin in Southland play including a 8-6 loss in 10 innings on Saturday.
- Stetson (15-4) slid one spot to #3 going 3-1 on the week. The Hatters beat Harvard mid week and won 2 of 3 vs Rutgers. Saturday Stetson was down 3-0 heading to btm of 9th against Rutgers and scored 4 runs to win the game.
- Samford (13-8) falls 3 spots to #13. The Bulldogs lost a heart breaker at Alabama on Wednesday. Leading 5-1 in the 9th inning with their All American closer LHP Lex Rutledge on mound Alabama scored 5 runs on only 2 hits to pull out a 6-5 win over Samford. In Southern Conference play the Bulldogs won 2 of 3 vs Furman.
- Gonzaga (12-6) dropped on spot to #16 with a 2-3 week. After winning 10 strait to start the season the Zags lost 5 in row. The last 2 loses of that streak came in two well played ball games at Arkansas this week(1-0 and 5-3 loses). The Bulldogs got back in the win column on Friday vs Pacific and won the weekend series 2-1.
- Troy (9-9) tumbles 6 spots to #17 losing 2 of 3 at South Alabama to open Sun Belt play.
OUT
- #20 Elon (12-8) drops out of rankings with a 2-3 week. The Phoenix lost 8-1 vs NC State on Tuesday, won 5-4 at North Carolina A&T on Wednesday, and lost 2 of 3 at Davidson in SOCON play. Elon won Friday night 10-2 then suffered 2 extra inning loses. Saturday they scored 2 runs in the top of the 11th to take a 11-9 lead only to see Davidson score 3 runs in the bottom half to win. Sunday Elon again took a lead in the 11th. Up 8-7 in the 11th Davidson once again fought back and scored 2 runs to pull off another dramatic win over Elon.
- #21 Florida International (8-10) falls out after a 1-4 week including being swept at home by rival Florida Atlantic.
- #22 Charlotte (10-10) drops out of rankings after being swept at home by Dallas Baptist. Last year the 49ers traveled to Texas and lost 2 of 3 to Dallas Baptist. This year the Patriots traveled to North Carolina and swept the 49ers by the scores of 6-4, 3-0, and 8-3.
- #23 North Florida (13-7) went 2-3 on the week splitting 2 games at FIU and losing 2 of 3 at FGCU in Atlantic Sun play.
IN
- It did not take Southeastern Louisiana (15-6) long to get back into the rankings. The Lions get back in at #21 after a very good week were they traveled to Mississippi St and swept a 2 game mid week series by the scores of 4-3 and 5-1. The continued playing well over the weekend traveling to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and took 2 of 3 in opening Southland series losing 4-0 on Sunday.
- Coastal Carolina (13-6) also gets back in the rankings at #22. The Chanticleers had a prefect 5-0 week beating CofC 5-1 Wednesday and beating Michigan twice, UCONN and UAB in their final early season tournament the Coastal Carolina Classic.
- Indiana St (16-4) enters the rankings for the first time at #23. The Sycamores are one of the hottest teams in the country with an 11 game winning streak and have won 16 of 17 games. The Sycamores went 5-0 this past week with wins over SIU Edwardsville, Kansas, Houston Baptist and 2 wins vs Notre Dame.
- Nebraska (14-7) comes in at #24 with a 5-1 week. The Cornhuskers beat California 9-5 on Monday to start the week, beat S. Dakota St 12-3 Tuesday and won 3 of 4 vs Louisiana Tech.
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Mid-Major Top 25- Week 5 |
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RNK |
SCHOOL |
(REC) |
PVS |
(WK) |
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Weeks Results 3/12-3/18 |
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#1 |
TCU |
(11-6) |
#3 |
(5-0) |
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1-0 Texas Tech; 1-0 at UTSA; 3-0 at UNLV; |
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#2 |
Texas St |
(13-6) |
#1 |
(2-2) |
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0-1 at Texas; 2-1 Stephen F. Austin; |
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#3 |
Stetson |
(12-3) |
#2 |
(3-1) |
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1-0 Harvard; 2-1 Rutgers; |
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#4 |
Purdue |
(14-3) |
#4 |
(3-2) |
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1-0 at Missouri St; 2-2 at Wichita St; |
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#5 |
Missouri St |
(16-5) |
#5 |
(4-1) |
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0-1 Purdue; 3-1 at Oral Roberts; |
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#6 |
Louisville |
(14-6) |
#6 |
(4-1) |
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1-1 Mississippi; 3-0 Ball St; |
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#7 |
Dallas Baptist |
(13-6) |
#8 |
(4-0) |
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1-0 Oklahoma; 3-0 at Charlotte; |
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#8 |
Pepperdine |
(14-5) |
#9 |
(3-1) |
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1-0 UC Irvine; 1-0 Columbia; 1-1 Kent St; |
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#9 |
College of Charleston |
(15-5) |
#7 |
(3-2) |
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0-1 UNCW; 0-1 at Coastal Carolina; 3-0 Wofford; |
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#10 |
Florida Atlantic |
(14-5) |
#17 |
(4-0) |
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1-0 Fordham; 3-0 at Florida International; |
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#11 |
Appalachian St |
(17-3) |
#13 |
(4-1) |
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1-0 at Duke; 0-1 at South Carolina; 3-0 Citadel; |
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#12 |
Kent St |
(8-7) |
#12 |
(1-1) |
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1-1 at Pepperdine; |
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#13 |
Samford |
(13-8) |
#10 |
(2-2) |
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0-1 at Alabama; 2-1 Furman; |
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#14 |
San Diego |
(17-6) |
#14 |
(4-2) |
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1-1 Indiana; 3-1 Columbia; |
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#15 |
Liberty |
(20-3) |
#16 |
(4-1) |
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0-1 Bryant; 1-0 James Madison; 3-0 at Presbyterian; |
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#16 |
Gonzaga |
(12-6) |
#15 |
(2-3) |
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0-2 at Arkansas; 2-1 Pacific; |
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#17 |
Troy |
(9-9) |
#11 |
(1-2) |
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1-2 at South Alabama; |
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#18 |
Santa Clara |
(13-4) |
#18 |
DNP |
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#19 |
Western Carolina |
(15-5) |
#24 |
(3-1) |
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1-0 Clemson; 1-1 at Jacksonville; 1-0 vs Fairfield |
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#20 |
Stony Brook |
(11-6) |
#19 |
(4-1) |
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1-0 Iona; 3-1 Yale; |
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#21 |
SE Louisiana |
(15-6) |
NR |
(4-1) |
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2-0 Mississippi St; 2-1 at TAMCC; |
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#22 |
Coastal Carolina |
(13-6) |
NR |
(5-0) |
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1-0 Collge of Charleston; 2-0 Michigan; 1-0 UCONN; 1-0 UAB |
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#23 |
Indiana St |
(16-4) |
NR |
(5-0) |
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1-0 SIU Edwardsville; 1-0 Kansas; 1-0 Houston Baptist; 2-0 Notre Dame |
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#24 |
Nebraska |
(14-7) |
NR |
(5-1) |
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1-0 California; 1-0 S. Dakota St; 3-1 Louisiana Tech |
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#25 |
SC Upstate |
(15-3) |
#25 |
(3-2) |
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0-1 at Charlotte; 0-1 at Furman; 3-0 Lipscomb; |
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dropped out |
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#20 |
Elon |
(12-8) |
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#21 |
FIU |
(8-10) |
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#22 |
Charlotte |
(10-10) |
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#23 |
North Florida |
(13-7) |
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|
bubbles |
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Portland |
(13-3) |
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UT-Arlington |
(13-8) |
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Campbell |
(18-3) |
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Belmont |
(13-8) |
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Illinois St |
(13-5) |
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Elon |
(12-8) |
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North Dakota St |
(12-5) |
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New Mexio St |
(15-8) |
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Wichita St |
(12-10) |
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Mercer |
(14-7) |
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