West Coast college baseball aficionados are puffing out their collective chests one month into the season, and they have good cause. UCLA, Southern California and Oregon have combined to win 53 of their first 59 games.<\/p>\n
Before the sport\u2019s epicenter moved to the Southeastern Conference in the 1990s, the power resided west of the Rockies. Since Oregon State won the 2018 national championship, no other team from the West has reached the finals over eight College World Series.<\/p>\n
The crumbling of the Pac-12 and defections of UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington to the Big Ten shook up traditionalists. For them, the fast starts by the Bruins, Trojans and Ducks are good tonic.<\/p>\n
UCLA (17-2, 6-0) is the consensus No. 1 team, out to its best conference start since 1977 and has won 11 straight games for its longest streak since 2020. The Bruins also have the projected No. 1 pick in the MLB amateur draft in shortstop Roch Cholowsky, a rising star in slugger Will Gasparino and an ace in San Diego transfer Logan Reddemann.<\/p>\n
USC (19-1, 5-1) set a program record with its 19-0 start, the Trojans\u2019 longest win streak since 1955. The loss, 2-1 at Northwestern, came Saturday as it was snowing<\/a> in Evanston, Illinois.<\/p>\n The Trojans have been nails on the mound and in the field. They lead the nation with a 1.61 ERA and 4.79 hits allowed per nine innings and are tied for first with five shutouts. Grant Govel has allowed one earned run in 33 innings (0.27) and Mason Edwards has given up one in 30 innings (0.30) and is second nationally with 52 strikeouts.<\/p>\n The Ducks (17-3, 5-1) have won six straight after freshman Angel Laya\u2019s base hit in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday produced a 7-6 walk-off win over Indiana. Oregon looks like a complete team, with Drew Smith batting .450 and slugging .900 and Will Sanford leading a strong pitching staff with a 3-0 record and 1.37 ERA over 26 1\/3 innings.<\/p>\n In the polls<\/p>\n UCLA, Texas and Georgia Tech are the top three teams by D1Baseball.com<\/a>, Baseball America<\/a> and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.<\/p>\n The Bruins run-ruled UC Irvine and swept Michigan at home last week. Texas (18-1) beat Texas State to improve to 16-0 and then took its first loss in the opener of its home series against Mississippi, 9-8 in 11 innings. The Longhorns won the next two to take the series. Georgia Tech (17-3) run-ruled West Georgia and took two of three at Clemson.<\/p>\n Unpleasant surprise for LSU<\/p>\n