Around the League: Three Pac-12 teams in baseball title race, Stanford adds to NCAA tally

While Bruin athletes continue competing in Westwood, here’s a look at some of the biggest news from the rest of the Pac-12.

Three teams left in baseball race

There could be as many as three Pac-12 baseball champions this season, with Arizona State, Utah and Washington all still in the hunt as the final weekend of conference play approaches.

The conference-leading Utes are a game ahead of the Huskies, and the Sun Devils are two games back of first place. Washington will travel to Utah for a first-place versus second-place matchup with immense playoff implications. Meanwhile, ASU will host USC – a team completely out of the race.

The No. 21 Huskies and No. 22 Sun Devils are very likely to make the 64-team NCAA Tournament no matter who wins the conference. The same cannot be said, however, for the conference-leading, unranked Utes. Utah’s 6-16 record against non-conference teams has given it an RPI ranking of 98.

Teams with RPIs and records that bad don’t generally make the NCAA Tournament – unless they secure an automatic bid by winning their conference.

If the Utes can win their weekend series against the Huskies, they’ll win the Pac-12 outright and receive a spot in the tournament. If Washington takes two out of three, it would move into a tie with Utah and become co-champion of the Pac-12.

In that scenario, the Huskies would receive the conference’s automatic bid because they won the season series against the Utes, leaving Utah praying for an at-large bid.

The Sun Devils have already lost their season series to both the Utes and Huskies, disqualifying them from contention for the automatic tournament berth, even if they sweep USC and move into a three-way-tie for the conference title.

Stanford women’s tennis clinches 18th NCAA title

Stanford women’s tennis pulled off an almost impossible run of upsets to win its 18th NCAA championship in program history.

Four of the No. 15-seeded Cardinal’s last five matches ended with a 4-3 score, including upsets over No. 2 Florida and No. 10 Michigan. The only contest that wasn’t decided by the final point was a 4-2 victory over No. 6 Vanderbilt in the semifinal.

In the title match against No. 12 Oklahoma State, Stanford lost the doubles point and four of six first sets. Against a heavy home-crowd advantage – Stillwater is only a one-hour drive to Tulsa – the Cardinal had to come back from a 3-1 deficit and win the three remaining singles matches at courts two, five and six.

Freshmen Caroline Lampl and Melissa Lord tied the dual match 3-3 after both won on the lower courts, bringing their collective record in the NCAA Tournament to 11-0, so the title came down to junior Taylor Davidson.

The junior played match point defensively by solely returning via soft slices, and when her opponent dropped a lob a couple inches outside of the line, she fell to her knees, disappearing under a dogpile of her teammates.

With the title, Stanford became the lowest seed to ever win the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championship.