A perfect 10 has led to a season high.
The Oregon State Beavers on Monday surged back into the top five in the majority of the five major college baseball polls — climbing as high as No. 3 on multiple ballots — as they ride the wave of a 10-game winning streak.
Oregon State ascended to No. 3 in the D1Baseball Top 25 and USA Today Coaches Poll, No. 4 in the Perfect Game Top 25 and No. 6 in the Baseball America Top 25. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Poll will be released Monday afternoon.
The Oregonian/OregonLive uses the D1Baseball poll for its rankings, and the Beavers have steadily moved up on that ballot each of the last four weeks, climbing from No. 11 to 8 to 6 to 3.
It’s their highest ranking of the season and the first time since March 24 they’ve landed among the nation’s top five.
Oregon State’s rise has been twofold. On the one hand, the Beavers completed another undefeated week, defeating then-No. 10 UCLA and sweeping a three-game series at Cal State Northridge, giving them 10 wins in a row. Also, three teams that had been ranked above them endured rough weeks — No. 2 Arkansas and No. 4 Tennessee finished 2-2, while No. 5 Georgia went 1-3. Tennessee and Georgia tumbled outside the top five, landing at No. 6 and 10, respectively.
The shakeup created a new top five, with No. 1 Texas, No. 2 Clemson, No. 4 Florida State and No. 5 Arkansas blanketing the Beavers (30-7).
Oregon State’s hot streak has been fueled by its offense, which has scored 87 runs and amassed 97 hits over the last seven games. Multiple Beavers set or tied records over the weekend.
Junior outfielder Gavin Turley became the Beavers’ Home Run King and inched up the school’s all-time list for RBIs. He went 7 for 14 with four homers, two doubles, 11 RBIs and six runs scored in the weekend sweep over the Matadors, passing Travis Bazzana’s all-time home run record and leapfrogging his way into fifth place on the RBI list. Turley has 46 home runs and 168 RBIs in his career and the next run he drives in will move him into a tie with Joe Gerber for fourth place on the Beavers’ all-time list.
Junior shortstop Aiva Arquette also had a memorable Sunday, finishing 6 for 6 with two home runs, seven RBIs and five runs scored in a 15-12 win. Arquette tied the Beavers’ single-game hits record — Justin Boyd also had six at the 2022 Pac-12 baseball tournament — set single-game career marks for hits, RBIs and runs scored, and extended his hitting streak to 10 games. Arquette is batting .524 (22 for 42) with eight homers, two doubles, 24 RBIs, 20 runs scored and nine walks during the stretch.
And he’s hardly the only OSU hitter swinging a hot bat during the Beavers’ winning streak. Catcher Wilson Weber (.415, three doubles, five RBIs, 11 runs scored), second baseman AJ Singer (.400, three doubles, nine RBIs, five multi-hit efforts) and Turley (.395, five homers, five doubles, 19 RBIs, 10 runs scored) are in the middle of prodigious 10-game stretches, during which Oregon State is hitting .336 as a team.
But the Beavers’ winning streak will be put to the test this week. After hosting the Gonzaga Bulldogs for a two-game midweek series that starts Monday night at Goss Stadium, OSU will visit the rival Oregon Ducks for a three-game weekend series at PK Park in Eugene.
The Ducks (27-11) took two of three games from UCLA over the weekend and climbed to No. 13 in the D1Baseball Top 25.
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | @freemanjoe.bsky.social | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
