Field Announced For NCAA Corvallis Regional
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State will greet Kansas, Hawai’i and Wright State for the NCAA Corvallis Regional baseball tournament that will run Friday through Monday at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. The opening day of games will have No. 1-seeded OSU (39-14 overall) meeting No. 4-seeded Wright State (32-25) at 5 p.m.; No. 2-seeded Kansas (42-23) will meet No. 3-seeded Hawai’i (43-15) at 12 noon.
The double-elimination tournament continues with games on Saturday at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m., on Sunday at 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. If necessary, the tournament would conclude with a game Monday at 2 p.m.
Full-tournament general admission tickets went on sale Monday for online purchase only at www.osubeavers.com; any remaining full-tournament general admission tickets and full-tournament reserved seat tickets will go on sale Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. for purchase online at www.osubeavers.com, by phone at 541-737-4455 or 1-800 GO BEAVS, or in person at the OSU athletic ticket office in Gill Coliseum Room 107. Complete ticket information is available at www.osubeavers.com.
Oregon State, which won its second straight Pacific-10 championship, did not receive one of the eight national seeds in the 64-team field. Should the Beavers win the NCAA Corvallis Regional, it would advance to an NCAA Super Regional against the winner of the NCAA Austin Regional, which includes host and No. 3 national seed Texas (40-19), North Carolina State (38-21), Stanford (30-25) and Texas-Arlington (29-34).
Oregon State’s players and coaches gathered with fans on Monday morning to watch the announcement of the tournament pairings. Some comments from the Beavers after seeing the bracket:
HEAD COACH PAT CASEY
"When you win a conference like the Pac-10, you should be a national seed. I think there has to be a lot more credibility put into being conference champions in big conferences rather than RPIs, because certain regions of the country can build their RPIs up. Mississippi State has lost 16 of their last 24 and it’s in the tournament; that would never happen in the West. I think that’s the only thing that surprises me is that a conference as prestigious as the Pac-10, the champion wouldn’t be a national seed."
"As far as who we play, it’s all pretty interesting because usually they’re teams you don’t know very much about. I thought last year we had a very tough regional; this year, I know Kansas won the Big XII tournament. We played Hawai’i a couple years ago, and we know they’re a good club and they play in a good conference. They’ve won a lot of games this year."
"We’re just excited to get out and play. I don’t know too much about the clubs, so right now we start working on getting some information on them."
"To be able to play at home, that’s a big advantage for us. We’re just going to go out and try to do what we normally do, and play one game at a time. We’ve just got to worry about ourselves and what we can do, and that’s be efficient in the small things that are important in the game."
(On winning back-to-back Pacific-10 Championships) "It’s fantastic, especially when a lot of people wondered if we could repeat that. It’s a big tribute to our players and what they’ve done, the work they’ve put in. I’m excited for them, and I’m glad to be part of that."
"Everybody in all sports, in the postseason they step up. The games are going to rise to that. The pitching usually wins the games in tournaments and we feel like we’ve got good pitching, so we’ve got to come out and play against some good clubs. We don’t know a whole lot about these clubs, but we’re going to find out and it will be fun. It’ll be nice. Hopefully the weather will be good and we’ll get some good crowds. I think some of our guys on Sunday were looking forward more to the selection show than they were to the game, and that might have had something to do with it (a 3-1 loss to UCLA).
"I feel good. The only thing that I don’t feel good about is not being a national seed if we’ve won this conference, but I also respect that the committee has a lot of work to do and they’ve got some tough choices."
(On playing at home) "It was an advantage last year, and hopefully it will be an advantage this year. I think anytime somebody travels and is in a new setting they have to get used to it, and hopefully we can come out and be sharp. I think the things that are going to win games in regionals are pitching and defense, and I feel those are two of our strong suits."
PITCHER KEVIN GUNDERSON
"You have to beat good teams to make it there (the College World Series), and I think that’s the biggest thing. We can’t dwell on the fact that we didn’t get a national seed and we probably wouldn’t get a chance to host a Super Regional if we’re fortunate enough to win the regionals. But it is what it is; there’s no changing it by us bickering and complaining - it wouldn’t do anything but hurt us in the long run because we wouldn’t be focused on playing."
"We just have to go out and take care of our regional, and if Texas happens to win its regional then we’re going to go into a tough environment. But first things first; we’ve got to have a good week of practice and take care of business first with the teams we have coming in, and do what we have to do to have a shot at taking down the national champion from last year."
(On being back in the postseason, as opposed to being there for the first time a year ago) "I think we’re on par with some of those teams who are up there in the national rankings. We’re deserving of what we’ve done the past two years. It’s unfortunate that you win the Pac-10 outright two years in a row and you don’t get that recognition, but there’s nothing we can do about it. We’ve got to beat good teams to get there, and we’ve got to beat good teams to win the World Series, so there’s no complaining about it."
"We’re excited; we’re real excited. We want to have a good week of practice and get out there and really do our thing. We’ve got to focus on those things, and I’m sure our coaches will do a good job of getting scouting reports on the teams that are coming in. It’s a tough regional, and there are no easy wins. Anything can happen in the Regionals and the Super Regionals and the World Series. It’s first things first - we’ve got to take care of the regional here, and hopefully we’ll get good crowds and play up to our potential."
SHORTSTOP DARWIN BARNEY
"You always look forward to hearing who you’re going to play, and I think we have some good diversity in our bracket. I think having Hawaii coming in will be a lot of fun for a lot of guys on our team. It’s just baseball - you’ve got to go out and play. We’re going to play our kind of game, and hopefully we’ll come out of the regional."
(On being at home) "Obviously, that’s the biggest advantage. Playing at home, at the college level, that is the biggest advantage you can have - being in front of your own fans, in a packed house. I just don’t seen any advantage going someone else’s way in playing here."
"I think our team is ready to get going. We’re not going to worry about a lot of little stuff - we’re just going to play baseball."
"We got the Pac-10 title; that’s what our first goal was. But we’re not content. That was something we expected. We expected to be a good club this year, to come out and repeat. But we have things we want to do in the postseason that we didn’t have an opportunity to do last year - that’s make a better showing. Being at home is Step One; that’s what we need, that’s what we need to get out of this bracket and I think that will be fun."
