It all begins tomorrow. A quest for the NCAA Baseball National Championship. The Oregon State Beavers ranked #1 or #2 in the national polls against a North Carolina team that is looking for a big upset. (I included video of the 2007 title game for the Beavs against......the Tarheels just for Beaver fans to remember how difficult and special this time is for the players, coaches, staff and fans!
Here are the official game notes that have just about everything you need to know about the CWS and tomorrow's opener. It is on Rip City Radio 620 with pregame coverage at 11:30 am and the first pitch a little after Noon Pacific time.
Oregon State has advanced to the College World Series for the seventh time in program history after winning both the Corvallis Regional and Corvallis Super Regional.
The Beavers' previous six trips came in 1952, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2013 and 2017.Postseason History.
Oregon State is in the midst of its 18th visit to the postseason.. The Beavers carry a 63-35 (.643) postseason record into the College World Series, with the current head coach, Pat Casey, claiming 58 of those victories. Oregon State, the No. 3 team in the postseason, is a national seed for the fifth time, following a No. 8 seeding in 2005, No. 3 in 2013 and No. 1 in 2014 and 2017.
Oregon State is making its second consecutive trip to Omaha and seventh all-time. The Beavers are 15-10 in the College World Series, including a 15-8 mark under head coach Pat Casey. OSU won the 2006 and 2007 national titles, becoming, at the time, just the fifth program in NCAA history to do so.Our Side
Oregon State has recent history with each of the three teams on its side of the bracket. The Beavers took 2-of-3 in March versus Washington, and hold a 240-194-2 mark all-time versus the Huskies.
OSU is 16-7 in neutral-site games versus UW; the teams last played neutral-site in 2014 in Arizona. Oregon State won its 2006 and 2007 titles versus North Carolina; the Beavers are 4-1 versus the Tar Heels, with all five meetings coming in Omaha.
OSU is 0-2 versus Mississippi State, with both games coming at the College World Series in 2013.
Oregon State had 16 players recognized academically by the Pac-12 Conference, with Jack Anderson and Cadyn Grenier earning first-team honors. The 16 tied the 2017 Beavers for the most in a single season.
The Beavers have also been successful off the field, seeing two team grade point averages of better than 3.0 this year - OSU is on the quarter system, so two quarters have been completed. Both Jack Anderson and Cadyn Grenier were named Google Cloud CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 selections.
Oregon State set a school single-year record with three first-round selections in the MLB Draft on June 4. Nick Madrigalbecame the highest Oregon State player ever selected when he went fourth overall to the Chicago White Sox. He was followed by Trevor Larnach (20th overall to Minnesota) and Cadyn Grenier was taken 37th by Baltimore. All told, the Beavers had six MLB selections, with Steven Kwan (fifth - Cleveland), Drew Rasmussen (sixth - Milwaukee) and Michael Gretler (10th - Pittsburgh) also being taken.
Oregon State comes into the College World Series ranked third nationally with a .320 batting average. The Beavers are also third with a .417 on-base percentage, fifth with 7.41 hits allowed per nine innings, sixth with a .490 slugging percentage and eighth with seven shutouts and a .980 fielding percentage. Individually, Luke Heimlich leads the nation with 16 wins and is third with 151 strikeouts. Bryce Fehmel, meanwhile, is tied for 10th with 10 wins. He and Heimlich are the only two pitchers from the Pac-12 with double-figure wins this year.Omaha
Oregon State has 14 players on its 2018 roster who played at least one game in Omaha in 2017. Nick Madrigal was 5-for-15 (.333) with four RBI while Trevor Larnach tallied four hits and six RBI. Michael Gretler doubled three times and homered once. Pitching-wise, Bryce Fehmel was 1-1 while Jake Mulholland went 1-0 with 4 1/3 scoreless innings.
OSU allowed 22 hits and 15 walks in 35 innings.Away The Beavers are 22-5-1 away from Goss Stadium at Coleman this season, including a 9-0 mark in neutral site games (8-0 in Surprise, Ariz., and one win against Portland in Hillsboro, Ore., in April).
Oregon State is batting .373 in those nine neutral-site games - the Beavers have 32 extra-base hits and 40 walks to 53 strikeouts.
