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!