It’s the beginning of a new week, which means it’s time for our weekly Mountain West baseball power rankings. Air Force met their match last week in San Diego, while Wazzu made their mid-season case for a spot in the conference tournament in San Jose. Meanwhile, New Mexico came back into the spotlight against the Rebels and GCU might’ve sent the Bulldogs down into a permanent, last place spot.
With yet another eventful weekend behind us, here is our power rankings for Mountain West baseball after
week eight.
1. San Diego State (prev. 1)
- Lost at No. 22 Arizona State 8-2
- Won series vs Air Force 3-0 (9-2, 11-2, 12-9)
San Diego State has cemented itself as one of the top teams in the conference barring any catastrophic events. While they did have to eat yet another loss against a ranked team in Arizona State, beating the unstoppable force that was the Falcons’ hitting for two games. But when they got going, the Aztecs were able to put on a clinic good enough to silence their visitors. San Diego State has emerged as the top team this year both in standings and in overall stats, as they sit atop the Mountain West in team batting average (.360) and third best in team ERA (6.04), which would most likely be first if it wasn’t for Saturday’s game. With how things are trending, it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone paying attention if SDSU wound up taking the top seed going into the conference tournament.
2. Nevada (prev. 2)
- Lost at Gonzaga 7-2
- Won vs Simpson 18-7 in seven innings
While Nevada struggled out of the gate at the beginning of the week, the program took back control before heading into a conference bye week. Getting rolled by future Pac-12 member Gonzaga was not great for the Pack, but a redeeming, mercy rule home win against Simpson was a good bounce back. Nevada is currently in the same boat that Air Force was two weeks ago, which was to either continue to rely on your great bats or suffer the consequences of your pitching staff not being enough to deal with any decent team. As of now, the Wolf Pack are slated to do the latter, as they have given up seven or more runs in six of their last eight games. Expect a big slip down the power rankings if Nevada can not fix the issues quickly.
3. New Mexico (prev. 7)
- Won series at UNLV 2-1 (10-15 L, 7-6 W, 12-2 W)
After having their mid-week matchup against New Mexico State postponed, the Lobos got back in the win column with a gentleman’s sweep against UNLV. Going into this series with the best team ERA in conference play, New Mexico did struggle to keep the Rebels from scoring in the first two games, but a nice clean up series finale helped keep them in the top four with a 6.17, which is 0.70 better than the next best team. While we did decide to bring them back into the top three in our power rankings, the Lobos’ spot is extremely volatile, as their .278 team batting average is the worst in the conference, a stark contrast to their overall team batting average trends to start the year. Similar to Nevada, a bad conference series can spell disaster for New Mexico, so tabs will be kept on them this weekend.
4. Washington State (prev. 6)
- Won at Seattle University 10-0 in seven innings
- Won series at San Jose State 2-1 (5-8 L, 5-3 W, 6-3 W)
In one of the highest trending jumps we’ve seen over the past two weeks, Wazzu has found itself fourth in our power rankings and in Mountain West standings for the first time this season after handling Seattle at home and beating San Jose State over the weekend. While playing the vast majority of its games on the road, Washington State has made a grand upheaval in performance, especially on the bump in conference play. Despite playing three more games than every other school in the conference, the Cougars boast the best team ERA in the Mountain West in conference play (5.91). The batting has not been great in those games (.280, tied for seventh), but in a league where pitching is almost an afterthought, having a good pitching staff is going to be the key to contending for the conference title.
5. San Jose State (prev. 3)
- Lost at Santa Clara 5-3
- Lost series to Washington State 1-2 (8-5 W, 3-5 L, 3-6 L)
One of three schools to lose their mid-week game and their conference series, the Spartans had a rough time last week, losing to fellow California school Santa Clara then hosting Washington State in a series they probably want back. San Jose State has been struggling with consistency at the plate, which shows in the .285 team batting average the program holds after Saturday. The main contaminant of this is their run production, as the Spartans have the third-least amount of runs scored in conference play at 58. Even though some believe that consistently having a fireworks show in the batters’ box for the majority of your games is a bad thing, that is a good way to describe how the Mountain West has been, and San Jose State will need to get with the program before its too late.
6. UNLV (prev. 4)
- Lost vs CSU Bakersfield 14-17
- Lost series to New Mexico 1-2 (15-10 W, 6-7 L, 2-12 L)
In a battle between two teams that were incredible in the batters’ box in non-conference play, the Runnin’ Rebels were the one who got shut down. Although, it wasn’t as if they were connecting with the ball, as the program got 45 hits through four games, averaging 10.25 a game. Rather, it was their pitching, the Rebels’ achilles heel since they played Air Force to start conference play. In nine games, UNLV has a conference team ERA of 12.47, and has kept giving up high scoring games since. The last time the Rebels’ pitching staff allowed less than seven runs was March 21 vs Utah Tech. UNLV needs to get their pitching staff in order before the batter’s box gets cold, otherwise it will be a harsh April for the program.
7. Air Force (prev. 5)
- Won vs Northern Colorado 18-6 in seven innings
- Lost series to SDSU 0-3 (2-9, 2-11, 9-12)
Once atop the Mountain West standings, Air Force has dropped to 5-4 in conference play after a tough three-game sweep to San Diego State. The Falcons were really only competitive in the final game of the series, keeping it close in the final three innings, but ultimately couldn’t battle back from a 10-9 deficit and lost 12-9. Air Force has one of the better offenses in the conference, but pitching has been its Achilles heel. The Falcons sport a 7.66 ERA, the second-worst in the conference (only ahead of UNLV). Air Force will get another date against Northern Colorado, which it defeated 18-6 earlier in the week, before returning to conference play against Fresno State at home.
8. GCU (prev. 8)
- Won series at Fresno State 2-1 (8-10 L, 3-0 W, 7-5 W)
The Lopes stay put in the eight spot for another week after beating Fresno State 2-1 in a three-game series. It was the first Mountain West series win for the program, and despite it coming against a team we have ranked last, GCU is feeling some momentum at the right time, as the team will now begin a 10-game homestand. The first of those 10 games starts against ASU, a team GCU narrowly lost to in a 4-3 extra-inning thriller earlier this year. GCU will then host UNLV and Air Force conference-wise before facing Kansas State, BYU and Arizona.
9. Fresno State (prev. 9)
- Lost vs Cal Poly 10-4
- Lost series vs GCU 1-2 (10-8 W, 0-3 L, 5-7 L)
It wasn’t a pretty week for Fresno State, a team that has taken the hardest hit in our power rankings this year. It started with a 10-4 loss to Cal Poly before losing a series to GCU 2-1 at home. The Bulldogs took the first game of the series 10-8 but couldn’t capitalize on the other two. In the series finale, Fresno State outhit GCU, but was unable to overcome a big stretch in the middle innings from the Lopes. Fresno State managed to get the tying run in scoring position, but the Bulldogs had no more bite and fell 7-5. They’re now dead last in the standings at 1-7-1 and will play Sac State on Tuesday before a road trip to face Air Force.
