It will be pretty darn exciting next Saturday when the Seattle Mariners host the Toronto Blue Jays. Pat Casey will be recognized and throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Casey played for the Mariners organization in 1985 and 1986. He played for the Calgary Cannons and had Edgar Martinez and Harold Reynolds as teammates.
Here is Hank Hager the Sports Information Director for Oregon State Baseball's official announcement regarding Pat Casey:
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State baseball head coach Pat Casey will be recognized prior to the Seattle Mariners’ game with the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday, August 4 at Safeco Field.
Casey is slated to throw out the ceremonial first pitch before the teams play their third game of a four-game series at 7:10 p.m. PT. Tickets for that night’s game are available at mariners.com.
Casey, who just completed his 24th season with the Beavers, was named the National Coach of the Year by Collegiate Baseball and the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) after leading the program to its third national championship. He has been named the national coach of the year by at least one organization in five different years – 2005, 2006, 2007, 2017 and 2018.
The Beavers finished the year 55-12-1 and saw seven players named All-American at least once. Oregon State also had 16 student-athletes named Pac-12 All-Academic – a league best – with Jack Anderson named the Scholar-Athlete Of The Year.
One Month Later
It’s been a month since the Beavers won the title, and despite the fact it’s the offseason for college baseball, Oregon State coaches and players have been in the news.
- Associate Head Coach Pat Bailey was named one of the top assistants in the country by D1Baseball.com. That follows assistant coach Nate Yeskie, who was named the top assistant by D1Baseball.com after the 2017 season and the top pitching coach by Collegiate Baseball in 2013.
- Kevin Abel has been named the Freshman of the Year twice – by Baseball America and D1Baseball.com. Abel set the College World Series record with four wins en route to eight on the year.
- Kyle Nobach, who lettered for the Beavers in 2015, 2016 and 2018, was named the associate head coach at Everett Community College. Nobach played in 148 games over three seasons, batting .299 with 32 doubles, 10 home runs and 82 runs batted in. He came to Oregon State after playing for Everett in 2014, where he batted .321.
- Four Beavers from the 2018 club have made their professional debuts. As of games of July 26, Michael Gretler (West Virginia Black Bears) has played in 16 games, batting .273 with four doubles, a triple and 11 RBI. Cadyn Grenier (Delmarva Shorebirds) has seven doubles, one triple and five RBI in 17 games, while Nick Madrigal was recently promoted to the Kannapolis Intimidators, where he has 13 hits in eight games, tallying three doubles and four RBI with a .448 average. Lastly, Trevor Larnach has appeared in seven games for the Elizabethton Twins, batting .333 with one double and 10 RBI.
- Adley Rutschman returned from a two-week tour with Team USA after having led the club with a .355 batting average and five doubles. He drove in two runs, walked five times and played perfect defense in nine games, helping the red, white and blue to a 12-3 overall record.