Arizona baseball climbing rankings, RPI ahead of visit to ASU

Fresh off the program’s first road sweep of Washington, Arizona finds itself on the way up in the national rankings as it prepares for a midweek game at ASU on Tuesday night.

The Wildcats (21-7, 9-3 Pac-12) jumped in every major poll after completing a 4-0 week, all away from Hi Corbett, to improve to 7-2 on the road this season:

• USA Today/Coaches: 9^th (15^th last week)
• Collegiate Baseball: 9^th (19^th)
• National College Baseball Writers Association: 9^th (14th)
• Baseball America: 10^th (12^th)
• D1 Baseball: 11^th (15^th)
• Perfect Game: 13^th (24^th)

In the RPI, which the NCAA Tournament selection committee uses to help determine seeding (and who gets to host regionals and Super Regionals), Arizona sits at No. 7. The UA is 13-6 against Quad 1 and 2 opponents, and to this point has played the 14th-toughest schedule out of 301 Division I programs.

Right behind the Wildcats in the RPI is Oregon, who they finish the regular season on the road against. That series, along with Arizona’s home finale series against Oregon State the weekend before, likely will determine who wins the Pac-12 regular-season title and No. 1 seed for the inaugural Pac-12 Tournament in Scottsdale.

Arizona currently has a 1.5-game lead on UCLA (19-8, 6-3) but the Bruins hold the tiebreaker after taking two of three in Tucson last month. Oregon and Oregon State are at 7-5, while ASU is 5-4.

Tuesday’s game against the Sun Devils at Phoenix Municipal Stadium does not count toward the Pac-12 standings. The conference matchups are April 22-24 at Hi Corbett Field.