Week four is almost officially in the books, and it has been an eventful time in Mountain West baseball over the last week. Top teams both rose and fell in stock since March 2, while the programs in the middle and bottom of the pack have shuffled amongst themselves as well. All in all, over half of the conference has found new homes on our power rankings as of Sunday night’s results.
Conference play starts up this week, which makes both of us excited to get a taste of how the Mountain West will fare
against one another. Here are our power rankings after week four.
- SDSU (prev. 1)
The Aztecs played five total games last week, pulling out just two wins but remaining competitive throughout the week. It started with the game of a four-game series against Washington, which was a 4-1 loss for SDSU. The Aztecs bounced back with a 13-10 win over Long Beach State before losing a three-game series to Saint Mary’s 2-1. Despite the two losses, San Diego State put up 18 total runs vs. Saint Mary’s despite only hitting one long ball in the series.
Despite a 5.55 team ERA, it’s the second-best in the conference behind Fresno State (5.39). While the numbers don’t jump out and SDSU lost more than it won, the strength of its opponents, mixed with the rest of the conference having pretty poor weeks, is why the Aztecs remain No. 1 in our rankings. They beat Saint Mary’s 3-2 in the first game and only lost by three in the next two, so the competitiveness was there.
- Nevada (prev. 4)
The Wolf Pack were perfect in the four games they played this past week. It started with a 9-6 comeback win over Stanford, which was the Pack’s first win over the Cardinals since 2002. Nevada then returned home for a three-game series against Pacific, sweeping the Tigers with 33 total runs. Outfielder Jacob Doyle had a four-hit, six RBI game in Saturday’s 10-5 win. Nevada has improved to 8-5, and its offense has done an excellent job at avoiding the K with just 107 total strikeouts, second lowest in the conference.
Picking up its first win over Stanford in 24 years, paired with a three-game sweep at home, pushes Nevada up to the No. 2 spot. The strong offensive performance through those four games is deserving of some flowers as well.
- Fresno State (prev. 2)
The Bulldogs dropped one spot after falling in a three-game sweep to Arizona. Fresno State started the week with a 2-0 win over Sac State before being swept by the Wildcats. The first game vs. Arizona ended in a 6-0 shutout loss before falling 9-5 and 14-4. It caused a spike in the Bulldogs’ team ERA, but it remains the best in the conference. Fresno State’s pitching core has struggled to pick up strikeouts, however, sitting last place in the Mountain West with 88 team K’s.
Despite the series sweep, it was against a Power 4 opponent, giving Fresno State some leeway. The Bulldogs will face Cal Poly for one game this week before facing Nevada over the weekend to kick off conference play.
- UNLV (prev. 5)
It was a rollercoaster week for the Rebels, picking up three wins in five total games. It started with a quick two-game series against Northern Colorado, splitting it 1-1. UNLV then played in the Cambria Classic, facing Minnesota, Southern Illinios and Northwestern. Minnesota was up first, taking down UNLV 10-0 in seven innings. The Rebels responded by winning their next two in a 16-8 win over Southern Illinois and a 10-5 win over Northwestern.
UNLV sports the second-best batting average in the conference at .305 and is also second in home runs with 20. The Rebels will play one game against UC Riverside before beginning conference play vs. Air Force.
- New Mexico (prev. 3)
Formerly one of the final four programs to be undefeated in the nation, the Lobos got caught in the spotlight after winning the first 12 games of the season. Playing five games over the last week, the Lobos had the reverse of their first few weeks, losing every single game. They first lost to New Mexico State on the road 6-8. Then, they hosted Tarleton State, who took down New Mexico 13-11, 3-7, 10-15 and 7-9. New Mexico did keep three of the five games within two runs, but as the hype died, so did its time in the top three.
Despite the complete 180 the program has done out of nowhere, New Mexico has still been one of the most successful teams, so keeping them at five with the chance to jump back up is still in the mix. And they will have a good chance to do that, as they will travel to take on San Jose State to start conference play, who has been on a bad cold streak as of late.
- GCU (prev. 6)
GCU had another power four fight against the Utah Utes over the weekend, which ultimately proved to be a bad business trip overall. They do have one more game to play later tonight, but as of the time of posting, the Lopes have lost every game in the series. To make matters worse, they have also not scored a single run in any of the games while giving up 14. There was a close 1-0 loss in the middle of the series, but the two losses outside of that game were still not great.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for the other schools below GCU also having a bad week, the program might have slipped into the bottom three. But that mixed with a series against a tough power four program that has taken down other Mountain West schools, and GCU stays right at the bottom of the middle. The Lopes need to sharpen up quickly, as they have six games between Saint Mary’s and Rice (three games each) just four days after finishing up with the Utes.
- Washington State (prev. 8)
Washington State was one of the schools that had a bad time in Texas this weekend. Traveling to San Marcos to take on Texas State, the Cougars wound up only taking one game in the four game set. After a close 11-13 loss on day one, Wazzu took the second game 9-7, evening the series in both wins and runs. Despite getting back to even, the program did lose the last two games 4-10 and 2-3.
While they did lose the series overall, Wazzu did keep the series close throughout two of its three losses. And being the only school out of the bottom three teams in the conference to get a win does help dampen the blows, which is why they have shot up the rankings by one spot. However, if the Cougars do not get back in the right direction against San Diego State on the road, they will be in a deeper hole overall.
- San Jose State (prev. 7)
The Spartans did not have a great week taking on programs from both coasts last week. SJSU started off the week hosting the Pacific Tigers, losing 5-11 at home on Tuesday, March 3. Then they took on the Pittsburgh University Panthers at home over the weekend, losing to their guests in all three games. San Jose State got off to a horrid start with a 1-20 mercy rule loss, then lost 8-13 and 2-3 in the final two games.
SJSU was one of our programs that we thought could be a dark horse candidate when it came to the conference tournament come May. But now, after losing all but one game in the last three series (two games were by mercy), it is starting to become a question of whether or not the Spartans will end up fighting to not be last. There is a chance SJSU can right the ship now, as the program faces Cal on Tuesday and New Mexico over the weekend.
- Air Force (prev. 9)
Air Force was planning on getting back in the win column after a winless week. However, there was still much room for improvement for the Falcons. They took on the UT Arlington Mavericks on Monday, March 3 7-1, seemingly cleaning up their game. However, Air Force still had one more stop in their Texas road trip, and it was with the Baylor Bears in Waco, Texas. The Falcons’ wings were clipped in this series, as they lost all three games by a combined score of 5-18 and getting skunked to open the series.
Things are not looking great for Air Force, as they have won one of their last 10 games. One upside is that they at least have been completing in about half of their games, as over the same span, the Falcons have lost five games within three runs, which is obtainable with a good swing of momentum. But, that is speculation, so we have to keep Air Force on the bottom of the rankings until we see consistent production, which can start this weekend as it takes on UNLV at home.
