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LOS ANGELES — The Occidental baseball team is back in the national rankings.

The Tigers, currently sitting at 18-9 overall and in first place in the SCIAC at 11-4, moved to No. 21 in the NCAA Division III ABCA Top 30 poll on April 4.

The Tigers spent a lot of time in the top 30 last season during their first SCIAC Championship run since 1982, ranking as high as No. 9 in the country.

Oxy also received some additional national recognition on the heels of a pair of outstanding individual performances. Oxy's ace Nolan Watson and outfielder Eamon McNeil both were named the SCIAC Baseball Player of the Week and to the D3baseball.com National Team of the week. Watson through a no-hitter in a win over Claremont and McNeil went 8 for 8 with two homers and six RBIs as Oxy beat La Verne in a doubleheader to move into first in the SCIAC.

Oxy has a one-game lead with nine to play, but defending co-champion Cal Lutheran (10-5) has the more favorable remaining schedule with series against Whittier, Caltech and Claremont-Mudd-Scripps which are a combined 10-31 in SCIAC headed into this weekend.

The Tigers are playing a non-conference series against Pacific (Ore.) this weekend beginning in Orange County on Friday night. The doubleheader of the series begins at Oxy at noon.