There’s 3 things you can count on as an Oregon sports fan: too many uniform combinations from the University of Oregon, the Blazers scoring 100 points at home, and Oregon State’s baseball team being pretty damn good. The Beavers were snubbed out of the tournament last year, but bounced back in a major way this season. They head into the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship tournament as the #1 overall seed for the second time since 2014.
Looking at the consistency of this program can be perplexing when you consider the in-conference rivals and one of the largest factors in baseball, the weather. Most players would elect for the sunshine of Arizona, UCLA, or USC. However, Oregon State has been able to overcome these obstacles under Pat Casey to go on a run of success and consistency. Since 2005 the program has only missed the NCAA Tournament twice. Within that same timeframe they’ve had 16 All-Americans. Impressive for a state that has rain through the month of May.
Words like scorching, red hot, peaking, and dominant are a few words to describe the team riding a 16 game winning streak. Start by looking at the team’s 1.84 earned run average. Luke Heimlich leads the staff with what looks like a video game .81 ERA stat. Pitching always carries teams in the postseason. This should be a good omen for Beaver Nation. If chicks dig the long ball, this team might not be their set of dream guys. But isn’t there some love for the guys who hit for average? In that case we’ve found a group to swipe right for. Nick Madrigal easily has the most attractive stat line for a team hitting a combined .289. The best part is he’s a sophomore.
The Beavers will host Holy Cross at home and if everything goes as planned they’ll see Nebraska right after. Things will get interesting in the Super Regional where they’ll possibly face Vanderbilt or Clemson. Two of college baseball’s more storied programs that have had years that yielded #1 and #2 seeds.
