Arizona State inches up polls as regular season winds down

Landon Hairston waits for his pitch against Baylor. Photo Credit: Andrew Hayslett

Just two weeks remain in the regular season, and time is running short for significant movement in the national rankings. Thankfully on this May the 4th, the polls are strong with the Sun Devils.

Another weekend series win over a tough unranked opponent in Central Florida has jumped Arizona State up three spots in the latest D1Baseball.com poll, sitting at No. 16 in Monday's rankings.

Baseball America and Perfect Game also gave the Devils a jump up in their latest polls, moving to No. 19 (Baseball America) and No 16 (Perfect Game) in Monday's update.

Kansas remains the class of the Big 12, ranked in the Top 10 in all three polls. The Sun Devils remain unable to surpass West Virginia, sitting a spot behind the Mountaineers in all three polls after dropping 2 of 3 games at Phoenix Municipal Stadium at the end of March.

The RPI is where the uncertainty rests for Arizona State. The Sun Devils currently rank 6th in the Big 12 in RPI at No. 39, even with a 6 spot jump after the series win in Orlando. When looking at the latest bracketology, one source lists the Sun Devils as one of the "last four in", projecting Arizona State to be a No. 3 seed in the Tallahassee Regional with Florida State, Arkansas, and Bethune-Cookman.

The Sun Devils are currently in a bye position for the Big 12 Baseball Tournament that starts on May 19th in Surprise, tied for second place with the aforementioned West Virginia Mountaineers with just seven games remaining on the regular season schedule. Arizona State will host Oklahoma State (No. 32 RPI) in the home finale on May 8-10, followed by a crosstown trip against Grand Canyon University (No. 218) on May 12th and the season finale at Houston (No. 110) May 14-16.