She's Making Hard News Of OSU Softball - Oregon State University Athletics

By Brian Meehan – columnist – The Oregonian

CORVALLIS - , Oregon State's all-American pitcher, puts up numbers that Cy Young would have coveted.

The 6-foot-2 junior from Reno, Nev., has been at the center of two remarkable seasons for the Beavers. Oregon State won a share of the Pacific-10 Conference softball championship last season, its first women's title in any sport.

And brace yourself for McGowan's numbers -- they recall baseball's dead-ball era when starting pitchers rarely came out.

In 2005, McGowan made 44 starts and completed 34 of them. She went 36-10 and posted a 1.80 ERA. In 2992/3 innings (an output comparable to a college baseball team's starting rotation), McGowan struck out 346 batters and surrendered just 93 walks.

She is poison to batters. And guess what? If she's feeling right, McGowan just might pitch two games today.

At a national fastpitch tournament when she was 13, McGowan once tossed five games in a day.

"Now maybe I can get through two games and I am done," she said. "You can tell I am getting older."

Last weekend, McGowan was named Pac-10 pitcher of the week as she won three games against UCLA and Washington.

On a perfect April afternoon, McGowan didn't have her best stuff against Oregon on Wednesday. She gave up eight hits and three runs, but battled through seven innings. Oregon State scored a run in the bottom of the seventh for a 4-3 win to push McGowan's record to 22-4.

The Beavers, at 35-7, are third in the conference and No. 9 in the nation. And although television cameras focus on football or basketball, softball is by far the Pac-10's most dominant sport.

"Winning the Pac-10 is as difficult as winning a national title," said coach , in his 12th season at OSU.

At the moment, seven of the top 14 teams in the country play in the Pac-10. Oregon, at 19-18, is the conference's No. 8 team but probably will qualify for the NCAA tournament if the Ducks finish with a winning record.

Since 1982, the Pac-10 has won 18 of 24 Women's College World Series.

T he cool thing about the Beavers is their depth. They have a .313 batting average. Shortstop and second baseman provide terrific defense up the middle.

Senior outfielder 's sweet swing anchors the No. 3 spot. Senior catcher calls an astute game, and defensive specialist roams center field.

And let's not forget , a sophomore from Camarillo, Calif. Miranda is on a tear worthy of Roy Hobbs. Last week, she batted .556 with three home runs as Oregon State beat No. 1 UCLA in Los Angeles and then swept No. 14 Washington in Seattle.

"I am just seeing and hitting the ball well," Miranda said. Last Saturday, Miranda hit a tremendous home run in Seattle. "It was the farthest home run we have ever seen," said Johnson, a junior from Lake Oswego.

But the homer was erased because a teammate left first base early. The umpires called the runner out and returned Miranda to the plate. Two pitches later, the outfielder slugged her second home run in the same at-bat.

In the first game Wednesday, Miranda hit her 12th homer of the season. And her sixth-inning home run was the winning margin in a 2-1 victory in the second game. It marked the fifth consecutive game in which Miranda has hit a home run.

So far, the softball season has summoned that sort of magic in Corvallis. If you want to see the best the Pac-10 has to offer, wander out to the OSU Softball Complex on Western Avenue. OSU, Stanford and Cal, three of the nation's top 10 teams, will battle it out Friday, Saturday and Sunday. And one of them, dressed in orange and black, shows signs of being unstoppable.

Brian Meehan, 503-221-4341; brianmeehan@news.oregonian.com