College Baseball Poll - Collegiate Baseball Newspaper

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release: Monday (March 24, 2003)

RICE OWLS NO. 1 IN COLLEGIATE BASEBALL NEWSPAPER (www.baseballnews.com) POLL

TUCSON, Ariz. — Rice University (24-1) has been ranked No. 1 for the first time this season in Collegiate Baseball newspaper's NCAA Division I baseball poll.

The Owls, winners of 21 consecutive games, are the fourth different team to be ranked No. 1 in the Collegiate Baseball poll this season. Texas, Florida St. and Arizona St. have each been at the top.

While Rice was rolling along with its mammoth winning streak, the three teams ahead of them in last week's poll suffered losses. Arizona St. took a loss against Wichita St. and Stanford. Florida St. was beaten two of three times against North Carolina St. while Georgia Tech lost a game earlier in the week to Auburn.

Rice owns wins over six ranked opponents this season as the team is hitting .325. But what really grabs your attention is the pitching staff ERA (2.49) and fielding percentage (.993). The Owls have only committed seven errors in 25 games this season. The NCAA record is .985 which West Virginia set during the 1971 season.

Poll Notes: Clemson is in the midst of a 13-game winning streak and moved from 14th to 10th this week. South Alabama has won 11 consecutive games and entered the poll at 26th. Another red-hot team is Washington which has won 11 of its last 12 games. South Carolina, ranked 11th last week, slipped all the way to 21st after being defeated three straight by Tennessee. The Volunteers, ranked 27th, would have moved higher in the poll, but the team lost seven of its previous eight games entering the 3-game series. Seven teams fell out of the poll this week, an all-time record. Texas A&M lost three times last week as did Arkansas and Wichita St. Oklahoma has lost four straight. Other teams which dropped out of the poll include Notre Dame, Alabama-Birmingham and Coastal Carolina.

The Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll is the oldest college baseball poll. Its birth took place during the 1957 college baseball season.

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