Luke Heimlich has had an amazing spring! His performance against USC has earned him the Pac-12 Pitcher of the week award. This is his fourth POTW award this season and the eighth in his career.
The Beaver baseball team also remained in second place in the nation in the d1baseball.com poll. Here are all the details from their website. And more on Heimlich after the D1 articla on his incredible season!
Florida held onto the No. 1 spot in the D1Baseball Top 25 rankings despite getting swept in its final regular-season series at Mississippi State. It was the first series loss of the season for the Gators, who clinched the SEC regular-season title the previous weekend. Florida remains No. 1 in the RPI, with the nation’s No. 1 strength of schedule, and the most wins in the nation against the top 25 in the RPI (15-6) and the top 50 (24-12).
Oregon State remained No. 2 in the rankings after winning two of three at Southern California. The Beavers have put together a gaudy overall record for the second year in a row, but they remain 2.5 games behind No. 3 Stanford in the Pac-12 standings, and they are just 2-1 against the RPI top 25 and 7-3 against the top 50. OSU also has two series losses this season, including one against 14-38 Utah. So Florida’s overall body of work still trumps Oregon State’s, keeping the Gators ahead of the Beavers despite UF’s rotten weekend in Starkville.
Pac-12 leader Stanford, SEC West co-champion Ole Miss and ACC Coastal Division champion North Carolina round out the top five. ACC Atlantic Division champ Clemson checks in at No. 6, and the other SEC West co-champ, Arkansas, falls to No. 8 after dropping a road series at Georgia. The Bulldogs made the biggest move of the week, leaping nine spots to No. 7. Florida State also moved into the top 10, climbing two places to No. 9 after winning a series against NC State, which fell from No. 4 to No. 10.
Big 12 regular-season champion Texas leapt five spots to No. 12 after sweeping TCU. The Longhorns are surrounded in the rankings by other conference champions: the Big Ten’s Minnesota (No. 11), the Atlantic Sun’s Stetson (No. 13) and Conference USA’s Southern Miss (No. 14).
Two SEC teams rejoined the rankings this week: No. 24 Auburn and No. 25 Vanderbilt. The Tigers won a series against LSU, while the Commodores swept Kentucky, which tumbled out of the rankings from No. 19. The other team that dropped out of the Top 25 is Oklahoma State, which was swept by Texas Tech.
D1Baseball edit
In earning the honor, Heimlich ties former Beaver right-hander Andrew Checketts (1996-98) for the most in a career at Oregon State with eight selections. It also moves Heimlich into a tie for fifth all-time in conference history, trailing USC’s Seth Etherton (13 times from 1996-98), Portland State’s Mark Peterson (nine from 1989-92), Washington’s Tim Lincecum (nine from 2005-06) and UCLA’s Trevor Bauer (nine from 2009-11).
Etherton, Lincecum and Bauer have or are currently enjoying Major League careers.
Heimlich’s fourth honor comes after the left-hander struck out 14 for the second consecutive week as the Beavers defeated USC, 4-0, Friday night in Los Angeles. It tied his career-best set the previous week against then-No. 2 Stanford.
Heimlich, from Puyallup, Wash., did not allow a baserunner until the sixth inning and ended the outing with four hits allowed in 8 1/3 innings. He did not issue a walk and hit one batter before giving way to Jake Mulholland with one out in the ninth. Heimlich earned his 13th win of the season, which leads the nation and is tied for the third-most wins in a single-season at Oregon State.
The lefty has been stellar over his last six games. He is 6-0 over that stretch, with 45 1/3 innings total. He has allowed just 26 hits and 10 earned runs – for a 1.99 earned run average – along with five walks. He has struck out 72, or an average of better than one-and-a-half per inning.
Heimlich is 13-1 on the season, sporting a 2.69 ERA. He has worked 97 innings, allowing 73 hits and 19 walks while striking out 129, which ranks first in the Pac-12 and fifth nationally.
He is the first Oregon State pitcher to earn the honor in back-to-back weeks since Dallas Buck on May 17 and 24 in 2005.