Who knew the Arizona baseball team could jump that far?

Well, in the polls, that is.

The Wildcats (25-6, 3-0 Pacific 10 Conference) went from unranked to No. 17 in Baseball America’s weekly poll, thanks in large part to a weekend sweep of then-No. 4 Oregon State, the defending national champions.

Arizona also beat then-No. 16 ASU (23-10, 4-2) on Wednesday in the second annual Challenge at the Chase and are now a combined 5-3 against ranked opponents on the season.

Oregon State (23-6, 0-3) fell five places to No. 9, while ASU moved up a spot to No. 15 after taking two-of-three from Washington (15-11, 4-2) over the weekend.

Aaron Fitt, the lead college baseball writer for the online publication, discussed the Wildcats’ chances in the Pac-10 in his weekly blog.

“”The Wildcats have more pitching than Arizona State and look to have a better offense than Oregon State, making them the most balanced team in the Pac-10,”” he wrote. “”Arizona might be the darkhorse favorite to win the conference.””

The Wildcats were also ranked in three other polls, jumping from No. 25 to No. 18 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches’ poll, and from No. 23 to No. 15 in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s version.

Arizona also went from unranked to No. 19 in Rivals.com’s poll.

Early conference race

The weekend sweep also had other implications – though early, Arizona finds itself on top of the standings in week two of the conference season.

The Wildcats, who have won 11 straight, are tied with UCLA (13-14, 3-0) for first place, but their 25 wins give them a slight nod over the Bruins, who swept Stanford (13-12, 0-3) over the weekend.

ASU and Washington are tied for third, but the Sun Devils hold the head-to-head advantage.

California (17-14, 2-1), USC (18-12, 1-2), Washington State (16-12, 1-5), Oregon State and Stanford round out the conference.