No. 25 OSU Faces Regional On The Road
NCAA CHARLOTTESVILLE REGIONAL
June 1-June 4 / Davenport Field; U. of Virginia
FRIDAY, JUNE 1
Game 1: No. 7 Virginia vs. Lafayette, 1 p.m. PDT
Game 2: Rutgers vs. No. 25 Oregon State, 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
FOR ALL OREGON STATE GAMES
RADIO: Live on KEJO-AM (1240) in Corvallis area, KUIK-AM (1360) in Portland area, KKNX-AM (840) in Eugene area, KICE-AM (940) in Bend area.
INTERNET AUDIO: Live via subscription through Beaver Nation Online at www.osubeavers.com. INTERNET STATISTICS: Live at ncaasports.com
It’s become a familiar format, but it will be a different diamond.
Oregon State makes its third straight appearance in the NCAA Regionals this week when the Beavers (38-17 overall, 10-14 Pacific-10) cross the country to compete in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional, hosted by Virgina, from Friday through Monday.
However, this will be the first time in that trio of tournaments that the defending national champions have opened away from home. OSU played the 2005 and 2006 Regionals and Super Regionals at its own Goss Stadium at Coleman Field en route to back-to-back College World Series appearances.
"It’s something different," Casey said of traveling in the first round. "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."
OSU opens the tournament against Rutgers of the Big East Conference on Friday at 5 p.m. PDT; host Virginia and Lafayette open the four-team, double-elimination tournament Friday at 1 p.m. PDT.
OSU, ranked No. 25 in the final USA Today/ESPN coaches poll of the regular season, is the No. 3 seed in Charlottesville. 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 tournament 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.
OSU finds itself 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 returned to life offensively in the final weekend of the regular season as it took two of three games at UCLA. OSU continues to be led offensively by junior catcher Mitch Canham (.346 batting average, 9 home runs, 53 runs batted in), junior first baseman Jordan Lennerton (.331, 6, 45), senior outfielder Mike Lissman (.325, 8, 53), junior shortstop Darwin Barney (.293, 3, 45) and sophomore infielder Jason Ogata (.292, 4, 35). OSU’s deep pitching staff includes junior righthander Mike Stutes (9-4 record, 3.94 earned run average), junior lefthander Joe Paterson (7-6, 4.19), freshman righthander Jorge Reyes (4-3, 3.54), junior righthander Daniel Turpen (9-1, 3.79), senior lefthander Anton Maxwell (3-1, 2.42), junior righthander Eddie Kunz (2-0, 2.84, 10 saves), sophomore righthander Mark Grbavac (0-1, 2.48, 3) and freshman lefthander Blake Keitzman (1-0, 4.25, 1).
Rutgers is ranked 23rd by Baseball America and 26th by Collegiate Baseball this week. The Scarlet Knights won the Big East tournament title by beating Notre Dame 13-2, losing to Louisville 8-1, and then defeating Villanova 11-0, Louisville 12-10 and 3-1, and Connecticut 7-6 in Brooklyn, N.Y. Rutgers tied with St. John’s for the Big East regular season championship.
Rutgers has been led at the plate by senior outfielder Dave Williams (.408, 4, 49), junior shortstop Todd Frazier (.379, 22, 64), sophomore infielder Tom Edwards (.350, 7, 48), junior outfielder Ryan Hill (.348, 11, 55), junior catcher Jon Gossard (.330, 6, 35) and senior second baseman Mike Bionde (.313, 0, 32). At the top of the pitching rotation have been senior righthander Steve Healing (10-3, 3.56), freshman righthander Casey Gaynor (4-3, 4.66) and sophomore righthander Matt Giannini (5-4, 6.47).
Virginia is also ranked eighth by Baseball America, fifth by Collegiate Baseball and seventh by the NCBWA this week. The Cavaliers went 2-1 at last week’s ACC tournament, beating North Carolina State 6-1 and Georgia Tech 4-1 before falling to North Carolina 5-0 in pool play in Jacksonville, Fla. Virginia placed second in the ACC’s six-team Coastal Division in the regular season.
Pacing Virginia’s offense have been sophomore infielder Greg Miclat (.376, 0, 34), sophomore outfielder Brandon Guyer (.369, 7, 47), sophomore infielder David Adams (.368, 5, 42), senior outfielder Mike Mitchell (.318, 0, 20), junior pitcher/first baseman Sean Doolittle (.318, 7, 52) and junior infielder Patrick Wingfield (.311, 3, 29). Leading Virginia’s pitching have been sophomore righthander Jacob Thompson (11-0, 1.35), lefthander Doolittle (7-3, 2.57) and freshman lefthander Matt Packer (.3-3, 4.00).
Lafayette is coming off a split with Brown in a non-league doubleheader last weekend, losing 6-1 and winning 11-4. The Leopards won the Patriot League tournament with a pair of wins over Army in the championship series, 8-3 and 7-3, on May 12-13 at Lafayette. The Leopards won the league’s regular season title.
Lafayette’s top bats have belonged to senior outfielder James Conrad (.351, 0, 9), sophomore third baseman Jeff Butler (.350, 0, 22), sophomore first baseman/outfielder Chris Luick (.344, 4, 28) and senior outfielder Mike Raible (.319, 1, 39). The starting pitching has been made up largely of junior righthander Kevin Reese (7-1, 2.70), senior lefthander Matt Kamine (7-4, 2.72), senior lefthander Ted Gjeldum (3-3, 3.10) and freshman righthander Jeremy Atkins (6-2, 3.50).
For the complete OSU baseball release for the week, view the PDF file accompanying this page.
