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A big early April weekend of college baseball is in the books, so consider this your look back at some great action. The April 8-10 weekend saw some great baseball played around the country.

Going back to April 7, it was also the debut of Thursday Night college baseball on ESPNU. Not only was there South Carolina vs. Tennessee baseball on The U Thursday night, but there was also Arkansas vs. LSU Saturday night (drama) and Cal State Fullerton vs. UC Irvine on Sunday (not as much drama, but still good baseball).

The weekend’s action included 39 series that featured College Baseball 360 Top-50 teams, with 12 of those series being won by the lower-ranked/unranked teams. Sunday’s games alone had 41 total games involving top-50 teams, with the higher-ranked teams winning 61% of those games (25-16). In fact, less than one-third of the weekend’s series involving CB360 top-50 teams (12 of 39) resulted in sweeps.

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Here’s a look back at some of the Top 50 highlights:

Big, Bad Beavers…

#19 Oregon State made history by sweeping #5 Arizona State in Corvallis over the weekend. It’s OSU’s first sweep of the Sun Devils at home and also marks its first sweep of ASU since 1966. Arizona State (22-9, 5-4) had not been swept in Pac-10 play since 1999.

Ryan Dunn (courtesy Oregon State).

Oregon State’s Ryan Dunn batted in the 8-hole for the Beavers (24-7, 5-1) all weekend. The shortstop batted 6-for-11 with three doubles, a home run and six RBIs. He helped OSU’s 6-9 batters go 22-for-42 (.523) over the three games, with 12 RBIs and 15 runs. Oregon State’s 24-7 start is the program’s best since its 2007 national championship season. 7,751 fans saw the three games at OSU’s Goss Stadium.

Cavs Cooled…A Little…

Virginia had its 12-game winning streak snapped when it lost 10-8 at Georgia Tech Sunday, but the Cavs still took two of three games from the Yellow Jackets in the big ACC series. Saturday’s 12-9 UVA win to clinch the series extended Virginia’s school record road winning streak to 11 games.

No surprise, Cavalier ace Danny Hultzen (7-0, 1.33 ERA) fanned 12 with just one walk in 8.0 IP in Friday’s 6-2 Virginia win. Hultzen is second in the nation with  90 strikeouts in  54 1/3 IP this season.

Virginia (31-3, 13-2) roughed-up Georgia Tech starters Mark Pope and Jed Bradley in the first two games. The duo combined to give-up 11 runs on 15 hits in 12 1/3 IP on Friday and Saturday. Virginia has won all five of its ACC series this season, including three on the road. It’s only other ACC loss also came on Sunday against Florida State.

Jake Davies was 4-for-4 with 3 RBIs to lead the Yellow Jackets to Sunday’s win. Georgia Tech (24-9, 12-3) suffered its first ACC series loss of the season. Buck Farmer earned his sixth straight win for GT, despite giving-up seven runs (four earned) in 7.0 innings on Sunday.

Woo Pig Sooie…

James McCann

Arkansas swept LSU in their 3-game SEC series in Fayetteville and if you were lucky enough to see any of the action you saw some great baseball. The Razorbacks won each of the last two games of the series in walk-off fashion. Saturday night’s game on ESPNU ended on James McCann’s 3-run home run that gave the Razorbacks a 4-3 win in front of a record 11,103 delirious fans. LSU, after going scoreless over the first 17 innings of the series, had scored three runs in the top of the 9th before McCann’s shot in the bottom of the inning.

Sunday’s game ended on Kyle Robinson’s sac fly to centerfield to score Bo Bigham for a 5-4 win and the series sweep. It’s just the third time Arkansas (23-8, 6-6) has swept LSU since joining the SEC in 1992. The Razorbacks are now a game behind Alabama in the SEC West. LSU (21-11, 3-9) has won just one of its four SEC series this season. Austin Nola’s 6th inning grand slam gave the Tigers their four runs. 28,657 fans packed Baum Stadium for the 3-game set.

Sooner Pain, Cowboys Gain…

Oklahoma State continues to make some noise in the Big 12 after a 3-game sweep of Missouri. The Cowboys’ 7-3 win over the Tigers on Sunday gives the program its first conference series sweep since April 27, 2008.

OSU (24-8, 8-4) are in third place in the Big 12 standings, behind Texas and Texas A&M. The Cowboys finished last season with a 29-26 overall record, including just 8-19 in conference play.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma (24-8, 6-5) dropped two of three games at Kansas State. The series loss is the second for the Sooners in Big 12 play this season, to equal their total from all of last year’s College World Series team. It’s a big series win for K-State (18-12, 4-8), which takes a series from OU for the first time in 10 years and earns its first conference series win of 2011.

California Crash…

Three California schools, Cal, Stanford and Fresno State, all suffered series upsets over the weekend. Maybe #18 Cal was breathing a sigh of relief after finding out the program had been spared the ax prior to its series at Arizona, but the Golden Bears lost two of three in Tucson to the Wildcats. Cal’s Justin Jones was tagged for 7 ER in 4 1/3 IP in Sunday’s 10-8 loss. Golden Bear Erik Johnson and Wildcat Kurt Heyer each fanned 11 in the series-opener, but neither earned a decision as Arizona scored three in the bottom of the 9th to win 5-4. Arizona pounded-out 40 hits in the series.

Jordan Ribera

#10 Fresno State didn’t lose its series, but that’s due in part to the fact that the WAC plays 4-game conference series. The Bulldogs (22-5, 2-2) dropped two of its first three games at #50 San Jose State (21-11, 2-2) and then pulled-out a 5-3 win in Sunday’s finale to settle for the tie. Last year’s DI home run leader, Jordan Ribera, hit a three-run homer to break out of a season-long swoon, while closer Charlie Robertson earned his 10th save of ’11. Ribera is still batting just .223 with 2 HR and 11 RBIs after belting 27 HR with 69 RBIs last year.

#14 Stanford dropped two of three in its series at USC as well. The Cardinal (15-9, 3-3) has played five of its first six weekend series on the road against the likes of Vanderbilt, Rice, and Texas. They host the aforementioned red hot Oregon State Beavers next weekend. The series win was the first for the Trojans (13-19, 4-5)  in their last five series vs. Stanford. Logan Odom tossed 7.0 scoreless innings in Sunday’s 6-2 series clincher. All three of his wins this year have come over ranked teams.

Tallahassee Tar Heels…

#8 North Carolina (29-5, 12-3) did something this weekend that it hadn’t done in 16 years-win a series against #7 Florida State (23-9. 9-6) in Tallahassee. The Tar Heels won 7-6 in Sunday’s series finale to end the Seminoles’ streak of 25 straight Sunday wins. UNC reliever Michael Morin earned saves Saturday and Sunday after relief stints of 1.0 and 3.0 innings, respectively.

Historic Spartans…

Michigan State made history after sweeping reigning Big Ten champion Minnesota for the first time ever. The MSU-Minnesota series dates all the back to 1925, and it also marks the first time the Spartans (20-7, 5-1) took back-to-back series against the Golden Gophers (10-12, 2-4) after taking two of three at Minnesota last year. Brandon Eckerle leads a Spartan offense that’s batting .316 with a .439 average. First baseman Jeff Holm is the top run-producer with a .398 average, 4 HR, 29 RBIs, 13 stolen bases, and an 1.102 OPS. The Michigan State pitching staff sports a 2.70 ERA. Starters Kurt Wunderlich and Tony Bucciferro are each 6-1.

(Front page photo courtesy Arkansas.)

 

 

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Stanford’s Kaskow, SC ace Cooper Lead Primtime Honors …

Stanford jr. 1B Jonathon Kaskow

CLICK HERE for archive of previous CB360 Primetime award winners (scroll down for earlier weeks).

South Carolina sr. RHP Blake Cooper

Kaskow has been named the national Primetime Player of the Week and Cooper is the Primetime Pitcher of the Week, while 15 others join them in comprising the Primetime Performer Weekly Honor Roll (as selected by CollegeBaseball360.com). Cooper delivered a 4-hit shutout in the series opener vs. Mississippi (#20 in the CB360 Composite National Rankings), countering a strong outing by Ole Moss ace Drew Pomeranz – while Kaskow reached base 10 times and drove in/scored 10 runs during the Cardinal’s series sweep at #14 Oregon State.

COOPER delivered in the clutch versus the Rebels, sending South Carolina on to the series win and a spot among the Southeastern Conference leaders. The 5-10, 180-pound righthander racked up a career-high 10 strikeouts in the 5-0 win over Ole Miss and issued only one walk over the course of his fifth career complete game. It marked the first complete game shutout by a South Carolina pitcher since May 13, 2005 (when Aaron Rawl also posted a noteworthy win over Ole Miss, 2-0).

Blake Cooper's 4-hitter countered 7.0 shutout innings from Ole Miss ace Drew Pomeranz, in South Carolina's 5-0 series opener (photo courtesy of South Carolina).

After working out of a bases-loaded jam to open the game, Cooper settled down and posted four 1-2-3 innings (3rd-5th, 7th) to keep the Rebels at bay. A pair of infield errors allowed the first two batters to reach in the 6th, but Cooper quickly responded with a strikeout and double-play groundball to end the threat.

CLICK HERE to listen to an exclusive podcast interview with Cooper.

The SEC co-lead in victories this season (7-0; giving him28 career wins), Cooper owns a 2.44 season ERA and a lowly .185 opponent batting average, along with a 2.7 K-to-walk ratio (57/21) and 40 hits allowed in 62.2 innings.

KASKOW delivered from his cleanup spot throughout the past week, posting multiple hits in all four games (14-0 vs. Santa Clara; 14-6/5-3 in 10/10-7 at Oregon State) as Stanford gave its NCAA Tournament hopes a major bolt. The imposing 6-4, 225-pound righthanded hitter batted .625 during the week (10-for-16; 8 RBI), including a 7-for-12 effort in the OSU series, with five RBI, five runs, a home run, double and three walks.

Currently the Pacific-10 Conference leader in league batting avg. (.500), Kaskow smacked his first home run of the season and had 4 RBI in the opener vs. Oregon State, followed by a 2-hit game in the series clincher and three more hits in the finale. Stanford entered last week barely over .500 (14-13), with only a 4-5 mark in Pac-10 play (now 18-13/7-5).

Stanford cleanup batter Jonathan Kaskow reached base 10 times and factored into 10 runs, during the Cardinal's series sweep at #10 Oregon State (photo courtesy of Stanford).

(note: additional action photos for some of the other honorees on this page may be added later today)

Primetime Performer Award Criteria
• Must have been playing for or against a CB360 top-50 team (in the Composite National Rankings) or performed a high level in a game that could be key to a team’s conference/NCAA postseason qualification.
• Involved in clutch performances, such as late game-winning hits, noteworthy comebacks, game-changing plays, team leadership, key defensive efforts, etc.
• Performing at a top level against a team rated highly nationally (or within its conference), with bonus consideration given for key performances away from home field and vs. traditional rivals.
• Overcoming adversity or extreme circumstances (for the team and/or individual).
• Any accomplishment that is rare, historic, record-setting, etc., on a national level.

The other 15 members of the CB360 Primetime Performer Weekly Honor Roll include: Texas Tech fr. 1B Barrett Barnes (Sugarland, Texas) … Arkansas so. 2B Bo Bigham (Texarkansa, Ark.) … Southeastern Louisiana so. SS Justin Boudreaux (Prairieville, La.) … Georgia Tech jr. RF Chase Burnette (Buford, Ga.) … Univ. of the Pacific so. CF Brett Christopher (Livermore, Calif.) … LSU so. 3B Grant Dozar (Morgan City,  La.) … Texas jr. RHP Cole Green (Coppell, Texas) … Miami sr. RHP David Gutierrez (Miami, Fla.) … Arizona fr. RHP Kurt Heyer (Huntington Beach, Calif.) … Vanderbilt jr. RHP Taylor Hill (Old Hickory, Tenn.) … Auburn so. LHP Cory Luckie (Prattville, Ala.) … Florida Atlantic jr. RF/RHP Andy Mee (Palm Beach, Fla.) … Oregon sr. OF Curtis Raukinaitis (Sacramento, Calif.) … Liberty so. SS Matt Williams (Franklin, Tenn.) … and Ohio State jr. RHP Alex Wimmers (Cincinnati, Ohio).

The 17 honorees include nine pitchers (one of them a LHP and one a two-way player), along with two first basemen, a second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, centerfielder and rightfielder (plus a player who had stints at all three outfield spots during the past week). The selections feature three seniors, six juniors, five sophomores and three freshmen. The honorees hail from 11 different home states, led by three each from California and Texas, and two each from Florida, Louisiana and Tennessee, plus players from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Ohio and South Carolina.

PRIMETIME PERFORMERS WEEKLY HONOR ROLL#9 (April 20, 2010)

(presented by CollegeBaseball360.com)

“It’s not so much what you do, as it is when you do it.”

Player (Pos.) … School … Yr. … Hometown … Stats & Notes
Barrett Barnes (1B) … Texas Tech … Fr. … Sugarland, TX
Hit .500 in series and homered in both wins vs. #19 Oklahoma (1-12/7-3/8-3), as Red Raiders moved into 3rd place in Big 12 (6-12, 3RBI-3R-2B-BB)

Bo Bigham (2B) … Arkansas … So. … Texarkansa, AR
2-hole batter who offset subpar week by team’s top hitters, in 5-game stretch vs. #34 New Mexico (4-3 in 11/5-4) and SEC rival Georgia (10-2/10-2/13-5); hit 11-20 during week and scored 6 times (once in extra-innings), also 2RBI-2BB-SB-SAC

Justin Boudreaux (SS) … Southeastern Louisiana … So. … Prairieville, LA
Homered twice (5RBI) from 2-hole in key Southland Conf. series-clinching win vs. #37 Texas State (10-1/10-12 in 11/9-6); hit 6-14 with 9 RBI in series (3R-SB-SAC)

Chase Burnette (RF) … Georgia Tech … Jr. … Buford, GA
Helped rout in-state rival Georgia (25-6) and then sweep #16 Clemson (8-6 in 10/4-3/11-3) as Tech remained atop ACC; his HR from 6-hole won opener, then 2B & scored go-ahead run in 7th inn. of gm-2; factored into 8 runs during week (4RBI-5R-HR-2B-BB-2 SB-SF)

Brett Christopher (CF) … Univ. of the Pacific … So. … Livermore, CA
Played lead role in series win at #33 UC Irvine (2-4/7-4/7-2), as UOP jumped into race for BIG WEST title; 2-hole hitter’s strong all-around series included batting 4-9 with 6RBI, 4 sac-bunts & 3 extra-base hits (3B-2 2B-R)

Blake Cooper (RHP) … South Carolina … Sr. … Neeses, SC
Tossed 4-hit shutout (5-0) to beat #20 Mississippi in opener, with career-high 10 Ks and only one walk as SC went on to win series; countered strong outing by Ole Miss ace Drew Pomeranz (7IP-2H-4BB-10K)

Grant Dozar (3B) … LSU … So. … Morgan City,  LA
8-hole batter who had game-tying single in 9th and then homered in 14th to win series-sweeping game vs. #26 Alabama (12-5/9-7/6-5); went 2-2 (RBI-R) with 2 walks in opener vs. Tide (SB)

Cole Green (RHP) … Texas … Jr. … Coppell, TX
Crafted 1-hit shutout to beat #32 Texas A&M (14-0) in gm-2 or road sweep vs. rival Aggies (3BB-4K-32BF)

David Gutierrez (RHP) … Miami … Sr. … Miami, FL
Logged 7.0 “perfect-game” innings (21BF,  7Ks) vs. potent Florida Gulf Coast offense (.339 team batting avg.; nearly 9 runs/gm) before leaving due to pitch-count (84); Miami bullpen allowed 1H in 9-0 win

Kurt Heyer (RHP) … Arizona … Fr. … Huntington Beach, CA
Rookie who racked up 14 Ks and ended one out shy of complete game in 5-3 series-opening win at #44 Washington State (5-3; 8.2IP-3R/2ER-4H-BB)

Taylor Hill (RHP) … Vanderbilt … Jr. … Old Hickory, TN
Game-3 starter who turned in near-complete game in 3-2 finale,helping win series vs. #24 Auburn (8.2IP-2R-7H-7K)

Jonathan Kaskow (1B) … Stanford … Jr. … Coppell, TX
Cleanup hitter who Reached base 10 times and drove in/scored 10 runs, during huge Pac-10 sweep (14-6/5-3 in 10 inn./10-7) at #14 Oregon State (7-12; 5RBI-5R-HR-2B-3 BB)

Cory Luckie (LHP) … Auburn … So. … Prattville, AL
Delivered series-tying complete game at #21 Vanderbilt (12-2; 5H-2BB-3K-33BF-115 pitches)

Andy Mee (RF/RHP) … Florida Atlantic … Jr. … Palm Beach, FL
3-hole hitter who paced huge Sunbelt Conference sweep of #18 Western Kentucky (10-3/5-4/9-8), batting 8-13 while factoring into 9 runs (6RBI-4R-HR-2 2B-BB-SF); also saved series finale

Curtis Raukinaitis (OF) … Oregon … Sr. … Sacramento, CA
Delivered key offensive plays from #9 spot, as Ducks won Pac-10 series at #2 UCLA (5-4/8-4/1-5); had 4RBI-HR-3B in series clincher (2RBI in 1-run opener)

Matt Williams (SS) … Liberty … So. … Franklin, TN
5-hole batter who hit .500 (7-14) and played error-free in Big South Conference sweep of #42 VMI (12-9/9-6/13-8), which was coming off upset of #3 Virginia; factored into 10 runs vs. VMI (6RBI-4R-3B-2B-BB-SB)

Alex Wimmers (RHP) … Ohio State … Jr. … Cincinnati, OH
Opened key Big Ten road series with dominating win at #48 Michigan State (10-1; 8IP-R-7H-2BB-7K)

* – Kascow is the CB360 Primetime Player of the Week and Cooper the Primetime Pitcher of the Week … note that rankings above refer to the CB360 top-50 … class years are based on academic standing (some players may have an extra year of eligibility)