OSU Baseball home series tickets available

Whew! Just got back from a whirlwind week in Texas. First thing I noticed is that the OSU baseball team seems to have picked it up again, sweeping USU and beating Pacific before dropping a game to SF.

Texas Pan-American is in town for a weekend series and a few seats are available tomorrow morning. Only about 400 though so get down there and get your tickets!

Official Site of Oregon State Athletics - Tickets For OSU Series Vs. Texas-Pan American To Go On Sale

Next weekend Arizona is in town and that could be a very tough ticket to get.

Interesting fan letter about Beaver football players

Not much going on in Beaverland these days. Just waiting for spring football and taking in a few baseball games.

Here's a feel good tid-bit about Beaver football as things have been plesantly quiet this spring...

Albany Democrat-Herald - A truer look at OSU players

Terri Burr of Lebanon had an experience last weekend that sheds more light on football players at Oregon State than any number of second-hand stories in the news.

She wrote to Mike Riley, the coach, and sent me a copy of her letter.

On Sunday she took her 8-year-old nephew, Gus, who was staying with her and her husband that weekend, to a football clinic on the OSU campus sponsored by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Albany and Corvallis.


“I can’t tell you how impressed I was with the players who participated in the clinic,” wrote Terri, a lifelong mid-valley resident and OSU alumna (Class of 1989) who works as a shipping coordinator for Pennington Seed. “The fact that they were willing to spend an entire Sunday afternoon with a bunch of grade school kids was surprising and impressive by itself. When I saw how they interacted with the kids and actually seemed to be enjoying it, I was completely blown away.”

She added this vignette: “Right before the huddle at the end of the clinic, one little boy appeared to be lost and was crying. One of the players saw that the boy was having a hard time and stuck by his side until the boy found his dad — for five or 10 minutes. That player went out of his way to help that little boy.”

The players also did the kids other favors, such as posing with pictures and signing their footballs.

Terri Burr’s conclusion: “With the media constantly bombarding us with negative images, I think that sometimes we lose sight of how fortunate we are to have so many admirable student-athletes in our midst.”

That is great news after all of the bad publicity this time last year.

Oregon State Beavers lose weekend series to USC

The Beaver bats went cold Sunday night and they dropped the final game of the series against USC. The pitching was pretty good, but only a solo homer by Mitch Canham prevented the shutout.

So they're 1-2 in the Pac-10 and 12-7 overall. A bit of a slow start, but the hitting and pitching hasn't been quite as dominant as it was last year.

Check out the box score here:

Official Site of Oregon State Athletics - Home

Great turnaround season for the women's basketball team

After going 6-23 last year, the Beaver basketball women completed an impressive turnaround season by going to the WNIT and going 1-1. They ended up 16-15 with essentially the same team as last year. That's a great job by the players and new coach LaVonda Wagner to step up and give it all. Next year may be a bit of a rebuilding year, but there's a lot of talent coming in so they have a chance to match this year or perhaps do one better.

Women's Basketball Season Ends Against Wyoming, 67-49

“I’m proud of our seniors – they gave everything they could to this program,” said first-year head coach LaVonda Wagner. “They worked hard to turn things around from last year and leave a legacy here.”

Beavers Men's Hoops walk-on success

Brooks Hatch wrote a good article last week on the success of walk-on players on the Men's basketball team. I'd argue that the football team has maybe a slight edge in the walk-on department over the basketball team, but maybe that's just in the last few years.

Albany Democrat-Herald - Walk-on success at OSU

What makes a good walk-on?

Basketball talent, some upside, and generally in-state or alumni ties, Anderson said. They must be willing to commit and be willing to work as hard as possible, with no guarantee of playing time or other immediate rewards. A sense of teamwork and loyalty, and the maturity to realize that your biggest contribution might be pushing a scholarship player in practice rather than a game-winning basket or important rebound or assist.

This article got me thinking about how many good walk-ons OSU has had in football and basketball.

Here's my top five walk-ons at Oregon State in the last few years:

1. Mike Hass, WR, football.
Who else would it be? He won the Biletnikoff award for the best receiver, he's from Oregon and he's going to be drafted by the NFL. Best walk-on ever maybe on any team in college football.

2. David Lucas, PF, basketball.
I have to give props to David because it's obvious his contributions directly led to the first winning basketball season in 15 years. He was an unstoppable force on the basketball court and just a great guy.

3. Jonathan Smith, QB, football.
He came in and was the QB through the turnaround of college football at OSU. He was the epitome of a walk-on guy who did more with less athletic ability. He was just a great leader and had moxie. Plus, he gave us fans the best single season in the history of OSU football (Fiesta Bowl).

4. Alexis Serna, K, football.
Alexis has become a national figure in the last couple of years after having so much trouble at LSU, then making an amazing comeback to win the Lou Groza award for the best kicker in the nation (as a sophomore). Plus, he gave us a great feel-good story with Austan Pierce.

5. Chris Stephens, SG, basketball.
His three point shooting and clutch free-throws were a big reason for the Beavers basketball resurgence.

Honorable mention:
Nick DeWitz (yea he walked on for a semester or two)
Cole Clasen (except he transferred to Boise St., bleh)
Kirk Ylinimi (great place kicker)

Oregon State Women's Basketball will get word on WNIT berth today.

In the midst of the disappointing season by the men's hoops team, the women stepped up and improved drastically under first year head coach LaVonda Wagner. With essentially the same team as last season that went 1-17 in the Pac-10 the Beaver women pulled out a winning record to go 15-14 and have a chance at a WNIT berth.

Way to go Beavs!

Statesman Journal -

The only college basketball team from Oregon still in contention for a postseason berth, Oregon State's women's team, will find out today if it will be in the 40-team WNIT field.

[...]

Oregon State is still alive because of a 15-14 overall record. Two years ago, the Beavers had the same record and reached the WNIT. OSU has submitted a bid to host a first-round game. The team was the only winning Division I team in Oregon this season.

OSU Men's Basketball season wrap-up stories

Here's a couple of local articles on the recent Men's Hoops season. The Oregonian one is a very good read.

The Oregonian - Beavers still on the outside looking in

"Going to the NCAA Tournament is by all means the ultimate," Beavers coach Jay John said. "That's the next step for this program, without any question. The step after that is doing it two years in a row. And after that, it's being a regular participant and not a fly-by-night.

[...]

He had little success attracting local talent his first two seasons but has done better recently, first landing Jesuit's Josh Tarver as part of his 2004-05 recruiting class and getting commitments for next season from Jesuit's Seth Tarver and Jefferson's Lathen Wallace, two of the top high school seniors in Oregon.

"Those three kids coming in, maybe they could be the guys who help turn the corner for us and get the program back to where it used to be," said Charlie Sitton, who chose Oregon State as one of the nation's top recruits out of McMinnville in 1980.

[...]

Josh Tarver, a redshirt and next season's projected starting point guard, said the Beavers' NCAA Tournament drought was a nonfactor in his decision to play for Oregon State.

"That didn't bother me at all," said Tarver, who also has a brother on the OSU football team. "I knew the type of players that we had coming in and that we could change things around. It just inspired me that much more to bring Oregon State back to what it was.

"I like the program. I get to stay home and . . . that was probably the main reason I chose to come here."

[...]

Athletic director Bob De Carolis said the Beavers have spent between $1 million and $1.5 million in renovations inside Gill Coliseum, including a remodeled locker room for men's basketball before next season.

De Carolis also hopes to raise $30 million to $35 million the next five years to go toward a new medical-treatment facility, an academic center, a 2,500-seat annex to house wrestling and volleyball, and a complete exterior makeover of Gill, including new windows, doors and paint.

[...]

"Any time you come into a program that's down, you're going to face obstacles," said Lute Olson, the Arizona coach and John's former boss. "And the only way you beat those obstacles is by working as hard as Jay and his staff do.

"The one advantage he has is that Oregon turns out some good high school basketball players. I think they'll overcome (their recent past). You can't expect it to happen right away."

Statesman Journal - Injuries tell the tale of Beavers' 2005-06 season

While a 13-18 overall record and a tie for eighth place in the Pac-10 is a step back from last year's 17-15 campaign, which included a fifth-place conference finish and the school's first postseason appearance (National Invitation Tournament) since the 1989-90 season, John remains optimistic.

"We took a program that had no life when I got here, and brought it to a point where it has a winning record (last season), finished fifth in the conference and a whole series of things that hadn't been done in years," said John, who completed his fourth season.

"There isn't anyone who can convince me that if we don't endure the injuries that we did, that we would have had another winning season and been in some position to contend for postseason play."

John said the program has not developed enough depth to offset a key injury, much less the loss of three starters.

[...]

"I feel very good about it," Cuic said of OSU's future. "The guys we have coming in are fresh, they're energetic, they want to prove themselves, and in the right system, they're going to flourish."

[...]

"I feel it's better than when we came," said Hurd, a Houston native who was John's first recruit. "You look at the circumstances (this season), there's a lot of things that had nothing to do with the coaches. Next year when people see the new team here and guys are healthy, then you'll see the product."

Fox Sports - Oregon State Strategy and Personnel (Season in Review)

THE GOOD NEWS: Sophomore Sasa Cuic, a 6-10 forward from Croatia, confirmed several weeks ago he will return to school next year rather than sign with a European club. Sophomore forward Marcel Jones also showed excellent growth during the season, and junior center Kyle Jeffers played his best game of the season in the Pac-10 tournament win over Arizona State.

Gotta give props to the softball team

Hey, a 20 game winning streak is dang impressive. The softball team took the success from last year and is trying to do one better. Nice job ladies.

Let's hope some of the success of the women at OSU starts to rub off on the guys :).

Official Site of Oregon State Athletics - No. 8 Softball Pounds No. 22 DePaul, 10-3

Beavers pull out big win on pure heart

Wow. That was a pleasant surprise. The Beavs stormed back against ASU last night and beat the Sun Devils even though Cuic, DeWitz, and Hurd were all on the bench with major injuries. That was an impressive win. Granted, ASU has their own problems but they had a full squad the whole game and couldn't beat the Beavs who were severely undersized. Awesome Beavs. Nice job coach John.

Jeffers had a huge game again. And his shot in close range is the best it's been in his career. He scored a career high 20 points and was really the only go to guy except for Chris Stephens. Chris is still in his slump, but at least he is still hitting the 15-17 foot shots. He was big last night too. And look who is contributing again...Jason Fontenet. Good for him. Three huge 3's for him last night when no one else could hit a 3 to save their life.

Game this afternoon at 2:30! Can the Beavers cinderella story continue?

Corvallis Gazette-Times - Beavers rally to stun ASU

“I’m very proud of our guys and their fight,” coach Jay John said. “We have been a banged-up team. We lost Sasa Cuic four minutes into the game and he has been playing great for us.

“And the guys hung in there. There were a couple times in the first half and in the second half where it could have been over.”

...

“I thought I had to shoot the ball more,” Jeffers said. “Sasa is a good offensive player and someone had to pick up the slack

Oregon HS recruiting list

For those interested in where all the in state talent went in this recent recruiting season, check out this OregonLive.com page which is keeping updated quite nicely. It's even got most of the recent walk-ons listed.

OregonLive.com: Recruiting

Looks like most of the walk-ons are heading to OSU over Oregon. I love that. Plus, the out of state walk-ons look like they may be hidden gems this season. If all the key players qualify, this will have to be one of the best OSU football recruiting classes ever.

Plus, the final in-state D1-A score: OSU 5 players - Oregon 2. With the way the recent past has been the Beavers could be "Oregon's Team" before too long.

The first Beaver podcaster is online

Well, all Beaver nation needs now is a homebrew vodcaster (video-podcast). The first podcaster has officially appeared. At Tailflapper.com you can get a mini sports radio show with interviews and everything. No player/coaches interviews yet, but it's starting off prety good so far.

Check it out:

Tailflapper.com - Beaver Podcasts, Blogs and More

Jeffers was the difference tonight

Nice win Beavs. It was like two seasoned fighters who didn't want to go down. And Jeffers was THE MAN tonight. Two steals on their point guard (4 total)? Gettin' on the floor all night? Three blocks? Finally finishing in the paint in the second half? Jeffers deserves the game ball for this one. If he can get healthy and find a better soft touch inside, he could be a surprise next season. His inside moves are so much better than the last couple of seasons. Now he needs to finish consistently.

The refs sure "let them play" tonight. Jordan Kent was holding Cuic every time down the floor. I seriously don't think the Beavs are physical enough on defense. That's the difference between their 'D' and their opponents. They need to force the officials hand and see what kind of game will be called. Disrupt the other teams flow by just being more physical.

Good win Beavs. They need to work really hard in the off-season to bounce back next year. Hopefully they can finally take out ASU and end the season on an OK note in the Pac-10 tourney.

Beavers Win Civil War, 65-62

Beaver Baseball team wins big

The power is starting to come back. A two home run game. Mitch Canham and Darwin Barney looked great. Plus, home runs or not they are scoring runs. Nice game by the Beavs.

The game was vid-casted too! That rocked.

Game 2 today at 1pm!


Game recap:
Official Site of Oregon State Athletics - OSU Wins Baseball Home-Opener, 13-4

Oregon State Baseball today at 3pm, spotlight on Bill Rowe

Reminder: home opener today a 3:00 pm. Broadcast on 1240 KEJO (Corvallis/Albany), 1360 KUIK (Portland), and OSUBeavers.com.

Bill Rowe has been a pleasant surprise this season. He's hitting over .400 and leads the team in RBI. So far, he has made everyone forget about Andy Jenkins. Once his power stroke comes around he will be a big fan favorite. He hit 14 HRs at Ashland HS as a senior and 10 HRs in his junior year. So he should break out here soon.

The GT has a great profile article on the new Beaver firstbasemen.

Corvallis Gazette-Times - Finally at home

The senior transfer from UC Santa Barbara has already compiled some impressive reviews. Heading into today’s 3 p.m. home opener with Nevada at Goss Stadium, the personable 6-foot-3, 230-pound lefty is hitting a gaudy .412, with eight extra-base hits and eight RBI in only 34 at-bats.

Kerrry Eggers give some insight into some possible impact walk-ons for Oregon State

Looks like the Beavers history with walk-ons is paying dividends. An all-state kicker and two huge defensive tackles. Nice.

Schools: No money for more aid | PortlandTribune.com

Among the players who have accepted invitations from Oregon State to walk on when the Beavers begin training camp in August are Clackamas High kicker Justin Kahut, a second-team all-state choice who will redshirt and be the heir-apparent to Alexis Serna, and defensive tackles Mikel Camus (6-2, 300, Olympia, Wash.) and Nicholas Papapa (6-3, 295, Kenai Peninsula, Alaska).

Oregon State Baseball team finally comes home

This is the weekend we've been waiting for. The opening home weekend for Beaver Baseball. Looks like there are still about 400 tickets available for each game. They go on sale at 8:30am Friday morning. More info here: OSUBeavers.com - Approximately 400 Tickets Remain For Each Baseball Game Vs. Nevada.

In other developments, it looks like coach Pat Casey is going back to his bookend rotation with the #1 and #2 starters pitching Friday and Sunday. So the rotation will look something like: Buck, Maxwell/Stutes, and Nickerson. I like that rotation a lot because it takes some pressure off of the Saturday pitcher. It will be interesting to see if Maxwell or Stutes starts on Saturday. More info. on the series: The Barometer - Baseball has first home stand

The last bit of good news is that the games will now be broadcast over KEJO 1240 in the Corvallis/Albany area and Mike Parker will be back calling the games. KUIK 1360 did a great thing by picking up the first month of games, but in the valley we were out of luck unless we were near a computer.

Here's the official release on the series:

OSUBeavers.com - OSU Set For Baseball Home-Opener Against Nevada

Gillespie leads not just the Beavers, but also the Pacific-10, in batting with a .472 average (0 home runs, 5 runs batted in) and he’s second in the conference in on-base percentage at .579 and tied for third in stolen bases with six. Two other Beavers are in the top 10 in batting in the conference, with first baseman Bill Rowe sixth at .412 (0 homers, 8 RBIs) and third baseman Shea McFeely seventh at .405 (0 homers, 7 RBIs); Rowe’s on-base percentage of .512 ranks fourth in the conference and McFeely’s mark of .479 is 10th

That's some hot starts. I think Cole should hit second instead of 5th. He seems to like the top of the order and I think he'd really keep the offense moving. Bill Rowe looks like he may step in nicely for Andy Jenkins. If Darwin Barney, Mitch Canham, and Tyler Graham can get rolling the Beavs may get back to last year's form in a hurry.

One disturbing number is that the Beavers have only had 3 HRs in their first 10 games. The Beavs never relied on power last year, but you have to have some pop.

Go Beavs!

To all Beaver Hoops fans: read this

Lamar Hurd has written another great article about his struggle to get healthy before his senior season slips away. A great read.

I'm feel bad for Lamar. I truly believe that he was going to breakout this season. OK, he wasn't going to score 20 a game, but his shot looked much better this season and he was just more aggressive offensively than he had ever been. Plus, he made everyone else better and really helped a ton on defense.

Well, it's been a good run Lamar. Thanks for being a great person and a great Beaver. Good luck in the future.

Lamar Hurd - The Barometer - One game before it’s Goodbye to Gill Coliseum

I told him that I want to suit up on Saturday and go through all my team’s pre-game warm-ups and get a chance to get back on the court at least one more time. He said he would definitely start me, but here’s how my minutes will be determined: If before the game I’m moving well enough to play at a high level, then he’ll play me for an extended period of time.

This means that I have to be moving and feeling absolutely great. But his main concern is that I don’t re-injure myself. Therefore, if I am not able to move well enough to play for an extended period of time, he’ll play me for only one minute... literally, one minute. And that one minute could be a bit generous. So it could be for an extremely short time, but I will definitely be able to play on Saturday.

At least we will get to cheer him on the court one last time.

GT has a nice article on Marcel Jones

I remember linking to a story earlier in the year that mentioned Marcel Jones past as a model, an extra, and a commercial actor, but this article goes quite a bit deeper into that part of Marcel's past.

Check it out here:

Corvallis Gazette-Times - No longer an extra

He said it was a little nerve-wracking when he first started, but his dad was by his side to give him hints and pointers to make it through the dozens of sessions.

“You’ve got to have a certain confidence about you,” Jones said. “You’ve got to just go in there and act like you can actually do it and not be timid. He told me that acting is a lot of pausing. There’s a lot of pausing involved in acting and taking time and making sure you pronounce every single word and not slur your words together.”

Jones was on Disney’s “Even Stevens” and “Smart Guy” and UPN’s “One on One.” He also worked on the movies “Princess Diaries,” “Beautiful” and “Big Momma’s House.”

He met stars such as Daniel Stern, Mandy Moore and Tahj Mowry and other Hollywood elite, such as producer/director/actor/writer Garry Marshall.

DeWitz out for remainder of the season. Ouch.

The Beavers chances of beating the Ducks took a hit this week when it was announced that Nick DeWitz will end his season to undergo surgery on his shoulder. This adds to the Beavers injury woes as it looks like Lamar Hurd won't be ready to contribute by this weekend. Good thing Cuic is hot and Jason Fontenet has regained his form.

The Register-Guard - OSU seniors may miss last waltz

What I don't understand about most of the articles that I've seen is that they say that Jeffers and Cuic are the only big men left after DeWitz's injury. They talk about Michael Johnson and Marcel Jones filling in, but that's it. Hello? What happened to Liam Hughes? He has to get some PT. I mean come on, he's good for at least 10 minutes of banging inside with Ivan Johnson. Maybe he'll surprise you. Don't write him off yet cause we're gonna need him next season.

So, what do you say coach John? How about showcasing Liam a bit and seeing if he can be a contributor?

Link to a College Football Spring Preview

College Football News is on the ball early with some fairly obvious early looks at the Pac-10 teams. However, it's kind of nice to read about the other teams since we generally don't follow them as heavily. Here's what they said about the Beavers:

Spring Preview 2006 - Pac 10:

"Oregon State
Spring practice starts: April 3
Spring Game: April 29

The big spring question is ... Will Oregon State ever have a quarterback who doesn't throw a bazillion interceptions? After the Derek Anderson era it would be hard to imagine a quarterback could throw more interceptions, but Matt Moore managed to throw 19 picks with only 11 touchdown passes. Yeah, six of those interceptions came against Arizona in bad conditions, but four of his touchdown passes came against Portland State in the opener. At some point, the Beavers must get more efficient production out of the passing game and not just throw for a ton of yards.

The most important position to watch is ... Linebacker. Trent Brey and Keith Ellison formed the best linebacking tandem no one knew about, and now their 215 tackles, 8.5 sacks and 22.5 tackles for loss from last year are gone. Oregon State has been a bit of a linebacker factory over the years, but replacing these two won't be easy.

Spring attitude... It might not take too much tweaking to be really good. The pass defense can't be any worse than last year when it finished 117th in the nation, the team finished last in the Pac 10 in passing efficiency, and 115th in the country in turnover margin. Even so, the Beavers went 5-6 with bad losses to Arizona and Stanford by a total of five points. Considering they get so many returning starters on both sides of the ball, it shouldn't be too hard to improve enough to become a bowl team again. "