Sun Devils tumble in rankings entering final week

Kole Klecker delivers the opening pitch of Sunday's finale against Oklahoma State. Photo: Tom Hardon

While Arizona State pulled out a gritty 11-7 win in the home finale on Sunday, this past weekend saw the Sun Devils (34-17, 17-10 Big 12) lose their first conference series since March 27-29 at home against West Virginia. With that came a drop in the major polls with three games left on the schedule.

Sliding from No. 16 last week, the Sun Devils stay in the rankings this week at No. 22, overtaken by Oklahoma State who makes their season debut this week at No. 21.

Baseball America didn't have any love this week, dropping the Devils entirely from Monday's poll update.

The RPI continues to be unfavorable for the Sun Devils, closing the weekend at No. 48 after starting play on Friday at No. 39. The cancellation of Tuesday's game at Grand Canyon will help preserve that position, but anything short of two wins at No. 110 ranked Houston will shake up the at large positioning, where the Sun Devils are still considered one of the last four in according to The Tennesean.

In addition to Oklahoma State, West Virginia and Kansas round out the Big 12 representation. West Virginia's sweep at Kansas vaulted the Mountaineers into the Top 10 of D1Baseball.com's poll, while the Jayhawks slid to No. 14.

Big 12 Baseball Tournament implications run wild for this weekend. Arizona State is assured of playing on Wednesday May 20th, guaranteed of finishing no worse than 7th place in the conference standings. A series win will guarantee at least a 6th place finish, and with it direct advancement to the quarterfinals on Thursday May 21st. A series sweep will maintain at least a top 3 seed, with an outside chance at winning the conference regular season title depending on the results of Kansas' series at BYU and West Virginia's home series with TCU.

Arizona State will take on Houston from Darryl and Lori Schroeder Park starting on Thursday at 4:30pm Arizona Time. All three games can be streamed on ESPN+ or on the Sun Devil Radio Network on KDUS AM 1060.