#19 USC and #11 Virginia are this Week’s Top 25 Biggest Risers
Another week of college baseball is in the books as conference play kicked off for a number of teams. With early season tune-ups getting out of the way, the weekly top 25 will really start to take shape and see a lot more shuffling over the remainder of the season. Here is the updated top 25:
The biggest risers in this week’s update feature previously #17 ranked and pre-season unranked Virginia jumping up to #11, and previously unranked and undefeated USC making its first appearance on the top 25 this year.
Virginia traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina where they took on the Tar Heels to open conference play, completely outclassing North Carolina in the first two games by a combined score of 22-5 before dropping the series finale by one run in extra innings. Before their weekend series, they split a two game mid-week set with a strong Charlotte team, and had it not been such a bad loss to Charlotte in the first game of the series, Virginia likely has a case to be a top ten team in this edition. AJ Gracia continues leading the Cavalier offense, owning a team-leading six home runs and a 1.243 OPS. The weekend rotation has shown some consistency as well, but it has been the bullpen that has stood out as the strong suit thus far on the pitching side of things. Graduate right-hander Lucas Hartman has been the glue guy in that group, appearing in nine of Virginia’s 16 games, delivering more than one inning in all but one of his appearances. In 18.2 total innings, Hartman owns a 1.45 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, and a .203 batting average against. With the home series loss, North Carolina had to give way to Virginia on the top 25 which is why they fall out of the top ten to #13.
USC remains as one of just two undefeated programs, the other being #2 Texas, after their mid-week win over UC Irvine and weekend sweep over Illinois. The Trojans didn’t open the season with any notable opponents, but after a power-four sweep a week after a road sweep of Cal Poly, USC has left no choice for the industry but to acknowledge what they are doing. Friday night starter, junior left-hander Mason Edwards, continues to be the Trojans star week in and week out. After six shutout innings in which he punched out 11 Illinois hitters, Edwards is up to 24 scoreless innings to open his 2026 campaign. He has allowed just three hits across his four starts, yielding an .039 batting average against, a mark that far and away leads the entire country. Sophomores Grant Govel and Andrew Johnson have followed Edwards in the weekend rotation, and have been nearly just as dominant. Govel has given up just one run across 26 innings of work, good for a 0.35 ERA while Johnson owns a 1.77 ERA in 20.1 innings. As an entire pitching staff, nobody prevents run scoring more than this USC team as they lead the nation in team ERA at a mark of 1.67.
Although they only moved up two spots, Auburn is another notable riser as they cracked the top five. LSU’s poor week in which they went 1-4 entirely against mid-majors dropped them out of the top five down to #9, giving way to the teams behind them that posted solid weekends. Georgia was one of those teams that had the chance to move up, not only because of LSU’s poor week, but also because of Florida’s home series loss to High Point as they dropped from #6 to #10. Clemson was another beneficiary of the Tigers and Gators falling as they climb as high as #7 behind a convincing four game weekend sweep of La Salle. Although Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida State, and NC State all handled business, they all fell one spot to give way to Virginia who was behind them on the previous ranking.
Further down the board, Oregon was another faller after losing their mid-week, in-state battle to Oregon State who ranked right behind them on last week’s update. Had it not been for a loss at the hands of Purdue in their weekend series, Oregon and Oregon State likely just trade places, but the Ducks fall out of the top 20 to give way to USC. After another convincing weekend sweep, Texas A&M continues their ascent after making their top 25 debut last week. Kentucky also finds their way back into the top 25 after falling out last week following a 5-0 weekend over Eastern Kentucky and The Citadel.
The two teams removed from the top 25 to make room for both USC and Kentucky were Miami and Coastal Carolina. After dropping their weekend series at home to Florida last week, there was still reason to believe that the Hurricanes were deserving of a top 25 spot, but that was until they dropped two of three to Boston College at home this weekend. Last week, Coastal Carolina took a big hit on the rankings, falling from #14 all the way to #25, only being left on the top 25 with the hope that the players out due to injury could help this team make a late postseason push despite their current woes. They did look better this weekend opposed to last weekend at the Bruce Bolt Classic, but couldn’t do quite enough to hold off USC and Kentucky from cracking the top 25. With good weekends from teams like Wake Forest, Texas A&M, TCU, and UTSA, Coastal Carolina ended up being the odd man out in this scenario after they dropped their mid-week to NC State and one of three to East Carolina.
Aside from the two teams that fell out of the top 25 this week, a few teams on the outside looking in that could either re-enter or debut on the top 25 next week include, but isn’t limited to Ole Miss, Alabama, UC Santa Barbara, California, and West Virginia.
To be notified of the weekly top 25 update, subscribe below!
