No. 25 OSU Will Head For Virginia For NCAA Baseball Regionals

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State, the defending national champion, was selected for an at-large berth in the NCAA Baseball Regionals, it was announced Monday morning. The Beavers (38-17 overall, 10-14 Pacific-10) will play Rutgers on Friday at 5 p.m. PDT in the first round of the NCAA Charlottesville Regional. The other schools in the four-team, double-elimination tournament at Davenport Field, Virginia and Lafayette, will meet at 1 p.m. PDT.

OSU, which was ranked No. 25 in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll that was released Monday, is the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional. Virginia (43-14, 19-9 Atlantic Coast), which is ranked seventh in the coaches poll and received an at-large berth, is the No. 1 seed; Rutgers (41-19, 20-7 Big East), the Big East champion which received votes worth 35th place in the coaches poll, is the No. 2 seed; and Lafayette (33-18, 17-3), the Patriot League champion, is the No. 4 seed.

The Beavers are making their third straight postseason appearance, and they find themselves back in the NCAA Regionals after losing two starting pitchers, the closer and five standout position players from the team that won the 2006 College World Series.

“To think that this club is in the same position that we were last year (when OSU finished the regular season with a 39-14 record), with who we lost, is extremely impressive,” Casey said. “I can’t tell you how many times, when you go through tough times during the season, you really stop and enjoy it and think about that. If you were to say that at the end of the year we’ll be 38-17, we’d say, ‘Come on now, don’t expect that.’ But they did, and with a tougher non-conference schedule.”

Oregon State gained its place in the 64-team field for the NCAA Regionals after taking two of three games at UCLA over the weekend. The Beavers finished in a tie for sixth place in the Pac-10, but had a Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) among the top 30 in the nation.

“I was talking to Coach (John) Savage of UCLA before our game Sunday,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “These guys follow RPIs and I don’t. The reality of it was, going into our game Sunday at UCLA we were 38-16 on the year with an RPI of 28; last year we entered the tournament with an RPI of 30 and were 39-14. If you look at about a one-game difference and having only two guys (catcher Mitch Canham and shortstop Darwin Barney) who played every day coming back, that’s impressive what these guys have done.”

“Did we stagger down the stretch? Absolutely. But there has to be a reason they want us to play 56 games. Our RPI was higher than it was last year and our non-conference schedule helped us tremendously. We had big wins over Missouri (ranked 13th in this week’s coaches poll), Arizona State (ranked sixth), Texas A&M (ranked 10th), Cal Poly, Georgia – and I think they rewarded us.”

Oregon State has advanced to the College World Series each of the past two seasons by playing the NCAA Regionals and NCAA Super Regionals at its own Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. Playing away from home hasn’t been daunting to OSU this spring, as the Beavers are 23-10 in games played on opponents’ diamonds or neutral fields.

“It’s something different,” Casey said of traveling for an NCAA Regional. “I think our guys are prepared to play on the road. You don’t want to be on the road last weekend and go on the road again, but I really believe we’ll have enough in our tank to go out and play the game the way we’re supposed to.”

The Beavers will practice in Corvallis late Tuesday afternoon, then spend Wednesday traveling to Virginia. OSU will practice at Davenport Field early Thursday afternoon and open the tournament Friday.

The winner of the NCAA Charlottesville Regional will advance to play in the NCAA Super Regionals against the winner of the NCAA Nashville Regional. The Nashville tournament includes No. 1-ranked Vanderbilt, Michigan, Memphis and Austin Peay.

In the other polls released Monday, OSU was ranked 29th in the Collegiate Baseball newspaper poll and 25th in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll. Virginia was ranked eighth by Baseball America magazine, fifth by Collegiate Baseball and seventh by the NCBWA; Rutgers was ranked 23rd by Baseball America, and 26th by Collegiate Baseball and received votes in the NCBWA poll but wasn’t ranked in its top 30.

The bid makes it three straight postseason trips for the Beavers for the first time in school history; the Beavers had made back-to-back trips to the postseason (NCAA Regionals or Pacific Coast/Pacific-10 conference championship series) in 1951-52, 1962-63, 1982-83 and 1985-86.

This will be the first baseball meeting between OSU and Rutgers. Oregon State and Virginia have never played each other in baseball but the Cavaliers have played on the Beavers' home diamond, having been sent to the 2005 NCAA Corvallis Regional but not meeting host OSU in the tournament. Oregon State and Lafayette met in the 1991 Riverside Baseball Invitational, with OSU taking an 11-5 victory.

NCAA CHARLOTTESVILLE REGIONAL

Friday, June 1

Game 1: Virginia (43-14) vs. Lafayette (33-18), 1 p.m. PDT

Game 2: Rutgers (41-19) vs. Oregon State (38-17), 5 p.m. PDT

Saturday, June 2

Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 10 a.m. PDT

Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 3 p.m. PDT

Sunday, June 3

Game 5: Game 4 loser vs. Game 3 winner, 10 a.m. PDT

Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 3 p.m. PDT

Monday, June 4 (if necessary)

Game 7: Game 6 loser vs. Game 6 winner, 3 p.m. PDT