Photo by: Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images
Beavers Shine On The Big Stage Friday
April 24, 2026 | Baseball
There are days when the major-league box scores read like a Goss Stadium reunion, and Friday was one of them. Down the right side of the country, three former Oregon State Beavers — a catcher in Baltimore, a starter in St. Petersburg and a left fielder up the road from him — turned the calendar page on April with the kind of performances that make Corvallis feel a lot closer to the bigs than the map suggests.
It is, in fairness, the kind of stretch Beaver fans have been watching for nearly a decade. From 2017 through 2019, Rutschman authored the most decorated career in Oregon State baseball history, slashing .352/.473/.559 with 28 home runs, 174 RBI and 156 walks across 185 games. He hit .408 with nine homers as a sophomore in 2018, then put together a 17-hit, 13-RBI explosion at the College World Series to drag the Beavers to a national title and earn Most Outstanding Player honors.
His junior season in 2019 — .411 with a 1.326 OPS, 17 home runs, the Golden Spikes Award, the Dick Howser Trophy and the Buster Posey Award — ended with the Orioles taking him No. 1 overall in the MLB Draft.
It was the kind of evening Beaver fans have been watching from him since 2015. Across three seasons in Corvallis, Rasmussen went 14-5 with a 2.65 ERA, striking out 150 in 170 innings over 33 appearances and 24 starts. As a freshman, he carved up Washington State for the only perfect game in program history and was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America, D1Baseball.com and the NCBWA. An injury erased most of his sophomore season, but he returned in time to post a 1.00 ERA in eight outings as a junior before Oregon State's 2017 College World Series run. The first round of that summer's draft followed soon after; an All-Star nod with Tampa arrived in 2025. Friday in St. Pete just added another quiet, professional line to a career increasingly defined by them.
Three Beavers, three storylines, one quiet message: somewhere between Corvallis and the big leagues, Oregon State keeps showing up on April afternoons whether you're looking for it or not.
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Rutschman keeps swinging a hot bat at Camden
Adley Rutschman picked the lock again. Two days after returning from a stint on the 10-day injured list with left ankle inflammation, the Orioles' catcher launched two more home runs in Baltimore's 10-3 throttling of the Boston Red Sox at Camden Yards, part of a six-homer afternoon that produced new season highs in runs, hits (20) and long balls for the home club. Rutschman is now 5-for-9 with three homers and eight RBIs since coming off the IL on Tuesday, a return that has resembled less a rehab assignment than a coronation.It is, in fairness, the kind of stretch Beaver fans have been watching for nearly a decade. From 2017 through 2019, Rutschman authored the most decorated career in Oregon State baseball history, slashing .352/.473/.559 with 28 home runs, 174 RBI and 156 walks across 185 games. He hit .408 with nine homers as a sophomore in 2018, then put together a 17-hit, 13-RBI explosion at the College World Series to drag the Beavers to a national title and earn Most Outstanding Player honors.
His junior season in 2019 — .411 with a 1.326 OPS, 17 home runs, the Golden Spikes Award, the Dick Howser Trophy and the Buster Posey Award — ended with the Orioles taking him No. 1 overall in the MLB Draft.
Rasmussen gets the better of an old teammate at the Trop
Eight hundred miles south, Drew Rasmussen drew the start for the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, and the matchup carried an unmistakable orange-and-black undertone: stepping into the box on the other side was Trevor Larnach, his teammate on the 2017 Oregon State squad that ran to the College World Series. This time Rasmussen won the rematch. The Rays' right-hander turned in one of his sharpest outings of the young year — efficient, ahead in the count, working off the sinker that has long been his calling card — and Tampa Bay handled the Twins to push his line for the season further into the black after he had opened the year 1-0 with a 2.75 ERA across his first four starts.It was the kind of evening Beaver fans have been watching from him since 2015. Across three seasons in Corvallis, Rasmussen went 14-5 with a 2.65 ERA, striking out 150 in 170 innings over 33 appearances and 24 starts. As a freshman, he carved up Washington State for the only perfect game in program history and was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball, Baseball America, D1Baseball.com and the NCBWA. An injury erased most of his sophomore season, but he returned in time to post a 1.00 ERA in eight outings as a junior before Oregon State's 2017 College World Series run. The first round of that summer's draft followed soon after; an All-Star nod with Tampa arrived in 2025. Friday in St. Pete just added another quiet, professional line to a career increasingly defined by them.
A quiet night for Larnach
If Rasmussen wrote the headline, Larnach mostly stayed in the margins. The Twins' left fielder — the third Beaver on the day's slate — was kept quiet at the plate against his former college teammate, the kind of evening that gets logged in the box score and forgotten by morning. There was, at least, a small piece of poetry in the matchup: the last time these two shared a field, in 2017, they were trying to win a national title together. The next year, with Rasmussen rehabbing, Larnach hit the two-out, two-run home run in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the 2018 College World Series that flipped a tied game and helped deliver Oregon State that championship. Friday's at-bats won't make any highlight reels, but in a season that runs 162 games, the head-to-head ledger between two Beavers is now even.Three Beavers, three storylines, one quiet message: somewhere between Corvallis and the big leagues, Oregon State keeps showing up on April afternoons whether you're looking for it or not.
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Oregon State Baseball Highlights: 4/24/26 vs. Hawai'i
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Cooper Vance with absolute wizardry at short!
Tuesday, April 21
Oregon State Baseball Highlights: 4/19/26 vs. Cal State Fullerton
Sunday, April 19
Pitchers set the tempo
Sunday, April 19
