Oregon baseball rises inside top 20 of college rankings after series win over UCLA

After starting the season unranked, the Oregon baseball team has now cracked the top 20 in most collegiate baseball polls after another Pac-12 series win over UCLA this past weekend.

The Ducks are ranked No. 18 in the D1Baseball.com Top 25 and No. 17 in Baseball America's rankings with a 22-8 record and a series victory over every Pac-12 team they've faced so far with an 8-4 conference record.

Fresh off a series win against UCLA, the Ducks have been led by a much more consistent rotation and bullpen this season with a batting lineup that has experienced the typical ups-and-downs of spring.

Starters RJ Gordon (4.07 ERA), Grayson Grinsell (3.79 ERA), and Kevin Seitter (5.02) have been steady as the weekend regulars, with Bradley Mullan (1.74 ERA), Logan Mercado (3.43 ERA), and Michael Freund (3.63 ERA) excelling out of the pen.

At the plate, Jeffery Heard is batting .358 with 13 doubles, three home runs, and 22 RBIs. Drew Smith is hitting .327 with 19 RBIs, and Jacob Walsh is hitting .287 with 10 home runs this season. Walsh hit his 32nd career home run this past weekend against UCLA, breaking Oregon's career record in a series-clinching win.

Oregon State is ranked No. 5 by D1Baseball and No. 8 by Baseball America as the only other Pac-12 school in either rankings.

The Ducks take on Sacramento State for a quick two-game midweek series before returning to Pac-12 play against USC in Eugene starting Friday.

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X@AlecDietz.