With a new uniform starting date for Division I, the college baseball season didn’t get started this year until Feb. 22. Weather permitting throughout the country, there were several big inter-sectional matchups to get the year started.

The No. 1 Arizona Wildcats traveled to Georgia and held on to the top spot in the PG Crosschecker rankings after taking two of three games from the Bulldogs. After dropping the first game on Friday, the Wildcats rallied to take last two games. A record crowd of 3,432 for a home non-conference game at Georgia’s Foley Field saw Arizona knock off Georgia 7-1 on Saturday.

The games with the greatest national importance took place in Tempe, Ariz., this past weekend where No. 2 Arizona State hosted Vanderbilt, Miami (Ohio) and two-time College World Series champion Oregon State for the DeMarini Invitational. The Sun Devils won all three games in convincing fashion while Vanderbilt knocked off Oregon State 8-1 in the other big match-up.

No. 7 San Diego ran into a buzzsaw early against cross-town rival San Diego State. The Aztecs took two of three games over the weekend and scored 36 runs against the highly-acclaimed Toreros pitching staff. Senior 2B Garret Green paced the offense for San Diego State, going 8-for-13 (.615) with two home runs and seven RBIs.

San Diego State joined the weekly Top 50 this week after their big wins over San Diego. The Aztecs were joined by UC Riverside, UC Irvine and Louisiana Tech. Kent State, Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Kansas State all fell out of the Top 50.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Dustin Ackley, of, North Carolina. The 2007 national Freshman of the Year doesn’t seem to have lost a beat. He helped the Tar Heels sweep Florida Atlantic, going 10-for-14 (.714) with three home runs and seven RBIs over the weekend.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Lance Lynn, rhp, Mississippi. Lynn started the season in a big way on Friday, striking out the first eight Minnesota batters he faced and 12 through five scoreless innings. Lynn, a possible first-rounder in this year’s draft, allowed two hits. The Rebels went on to strike out 21 Gopher batters en route to an 8-1 victory.

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Arizona State. The Sun Devils started the season in a big way, thoroughly dominating the competition at the DeMarini Invitational. Arizona State outscored its opponents by a combined 36-6 over the weekend with very impressive wins over No. 5 Vanderbilt (18-6) and Oregon State (11-0). Junior 3B Brett Wallace picked up where he left off in 2007, going 5-for-12 (.417) with three home runs and nine RBIs.