After spending the first three weeks of the 2008 season as the No. 2-ranked team in the country, Arizona State (17-0) has taken over the top spot in the PG Crosschecker weekly college baseball Top 50 rankings. The Sun Devils swept Troy over the weekend and took a pair of mid-week games over then 25^th-ranked Arkansas.

ASU had a showdown game scheduled on Tuesday night with No. 2-ranked Arizona, its in-state rival which began the season No. 1 and held that spot until this past weekend when it lost the final game of a three-game series against Cal State Fullerton. Arizona was 12-2 overall.

The Sun Devils averaged 10.7 runs per game and slammed 31 home runs in winning their first 17 games. As expected, potential first-rounders Ike Davis (.406-6-25) and Brett Wallace (.431-7-25) have sparked ASU offensively. Top starter Mike Leake (4-0, 2.61) has been the leader of a pitching staff that has produced a stingy 2.29 ERA.

Many of the nation’s power conferences got a start on conference play over the weekend. The biggest match-up saw Vanderbilt take two of three games over South Carolina in a key Southeastern Conference showdown. No. 16 Kentucky swept Alabama to move its record to a national best 18-0.

In Atlantic Coast Conference play, No. 3 Miami took two of three games at North Carolina State. The Wolfpack won the final game 11-10 on what turned out to be a walk-off, three-run home run by senior outfielder Matt Payne in the bottom of the eighth. ACC travel rules don’t permit any games to start after 4:45 p.m. on Sundays, and Payne’s homer turned out to be a game-winner when time prevented the ninth inning from starting. No. 4 Florida State (16-1) continued its impressive run to start the year with a three-game sweep over Georgia Tech. ACC schools Miami, Florida State and North Carolina sit at 3-4-5 in this week’s rankings.

Big 12 Conference play saw No. 12 Baylor take two of three games from No. 21 Oklahoma State. Junior righthander Aaron Crow of No. 9 Missouri had a big outing against non-conference foe Toledo, throwing a complete-game shutout with 15 strikeouts and no walks to highlight a four-game sweep.

The Big West continues to hold its claim as one of the top conferences in the country as No. 7 Long Beach State won yet another weekend series over solid competition with a sweep of Southern California. The 49ers now have weekend series wins over Rice, Wichita State, Hawaii and USC to start the year.

It would be difficult to find a hotter team in the country than another Big West team, UC Irvine, which rolled through yet another week of competition. The Anteaters improved to 14-1 on the year while playing one of the nation’s toughest schedules. Their lone loss came against Tulane. Righthander Scott Gorgen was lights out on Friday for UCI, going eight innings against Hawaii while allowing just one hit, while striking out nine and walking one. The junior improved his record to 3-1 on the year with a 0.60 ERA. As a team, the Anteaters have an impressive 1.68 ERA.

In all, six new teams joined the top 50 rankings after the fourth weekend of play. No. 41 Tennessee and No. 42 Florida started the SEC season with sweeps over Louisiana State and Auburn, respectively. In the ACC, No. 44 Wake Forest won its second straight weekend series while No. 49 Duke improved to 3-3 with a series win over Virginia. No. 50 William & Mary swept Old Dominion in Colonial Athletic Association play, while No. 48 James Madison swept Towson in another Colonial series to round out the new teams in this week’s Top 50 rankings. Auburn, USC, LSU, Santa Clara, Fresno State and Old Dominion all dropped from the rankings.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Ike Davis, 1b-lhp, Arizona State. Davis, a junior, had a big week for the Sun Devils, going 9-for-17 (.529) with four home runs and eight RBIs as Arizona State moved to 17-0 on the year to take over the top spot in the rankings. For the year, Davis was hitting .406 with six homers and 25 RBIs, with a team-high 10 doubles.

PITCHER OF THE WEEK: Ricky Bowen, rhp, Mississippi State. Bowen, a draft-eligible sophomore, had a memorable start to the SEC season by coming within one out of a no-hitter on Sunday. Bowen’s final line for the game was a complete-game shutout with two hits, one walk and 11 strikeouts. Bowen improved to 2-2 on the year and helped salvage the final game of a best-of-3 series against in-state rival Mississippi.

TEAM OF THE WEEK: Florida State. The No. 5 Seminoles are once again off to one of the nation’s best starts after sweeping Georgia Tech in an ACC series. They suffered their first loss of the season earlier in the week after splitting a two-game series against Georgia, but they managed to score 54 runs over five games against the two Georgia power programs. The Seminoles are now hitting .355 as a team, while averaging more than 10 runs a game on the year.