I've made a collection of Beavers baseball YouTube videos from the 2007 National Championship run. These include videos from the regional, super regional, and CWS. A couple I uploaded, but most are just around the web.
Go Beavs!
My photos from the celebration are here:
Oregon State Baseball Championship Celebration
I love these guys! They got their dogpile!!!
Dynasty. Three CWS appearances, two national championships. Our third ever championship.
I never thought this would happen 3 weeks ago. But once we beat ASU, all I could think was - win out Beavs!
Last year we played with our backs against the wall the entire series. We played the maximum amount of games a team can play. And our win was seen more as a mistake by UNC than us winning.
This year we barreled through the world series. We played the least amount of games and essntially swept the CWS. We tied for second in consecutive innings leading. And we played major league D, played small ball, and hit for power in every game. Oh, and we pitched better than any team in America.
To hear ESPN call us "the premier college baseball program in America" was awesome.
I can't wait to see Reyes, Wong, Wallace, Lennerton, Hopkins, Lechelt, Grbavac, Keitzman, Wells, and all the guys play next year and lead us yet to another chapter.
I love these guys!
Post-game press:
Beavers Repeat - BaseballAmerica.com
"Oregon State thoroughly dominated this CWS, becoming the first team ever to win four straight World Series games by six runs or more."
"Oregon State became the first team in a decade to repeat as College World Series champion, completing a dominant run through the tournament with a 9-3 victory over North Carolina on Sunday night."
"It's crazy. It's just crazy," Oregon State coach Pat Casey said. "I just felt like we were going to win. There is something in that dugout."
"We realized during that Virginia regional we could do this again," Stutes said. "We started rolling again."
In the midst of all the baseball excitement, they have been making progress on getting bigger and better facilities.
I found this on the pure-orange message board:
ARBUCKLE COSTIC ARCHITECTS, INC.
OSU Goss Stadium Expansion
Design is currently underway for an expansion to Oregon State University’s Goss Stadium. In 1999, the firm designed a completely new Goss Stadium with seating for 1,250 and upgraded Coleman Field, which is the oldest active baseball field on a college campus in the nation. Since the Beavers' baseball program won the NCAA World Series Championship in 2006, the University has decided to expand the baseball facilities to seat approximately 3,000 spectators. The design will include more seating down the right field and left baselines, a new booster sky box viewing area, and academic center for baseball athletes, and a reception/display area for baseball memorabilia and the NCAA World Series Championship trophy. Construction is scheduled to begin in July 2007 and the facilities are to be ready for the 2008 Baseball season.
The Beavers did it again. They rode their hot hitting and great pitching to a win in game 1 of the CWS Finals. North Carolina is going to have a serious emotional check for game 2 because their demons from last year came back to haunt them: throwing errors. Not that it really made a difference. We put so much pressure on them all game that they were bound to make a couple of mistakes. I can't be a coincidence that nearly every team the Beavs have played have made unforced errors.
I was sweating after the first couple of hits in that game. UNC came out intense. Coach Fox sure likes to fiddle with things (lineups, first basemen). It almost worked for them in that first inning, but once Jorge Reyes got out of that jam I knew we'd be OK from a pitching standpoint. Getting ahead of them early was huge. And not giving up walks was huge because those extra base hits they had usually came with no one on base.
You know, UNC has made a lot of comebacks in the postseason but the law of averages still says its hard to come back. Here's their record when trailing throughout the game.
Record when trailing after:To me it looks like they still lose most of the time if we can have the lead by the 3rd inning.
Inn. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
W-L 12-5 12-8 7-10 7-10 7-11 5-12 3-14 2-13
North Carolina IP H R ER BB SO AB BF NP
--------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodard...... 3.0 6 4 4 2 1 13 17 56
From what I have read and heard, the Beavers are playing the role of underdog once again. This is a role they have been in almost the entire post-season. Only the UC-Irvine game were they expected to win. But then they had the media and crowd against them.
I say perfect. We thrive in that role. Tell us we won't win. Tell us we can't do something. I know the Beavs will respond.
Take the first one today Beavs! Lets go!
The Beavers play game 1 of the National Championship series today at 4pm on ESPN. Don't miss it. If you have access to HDTV, then watch it in HD because its very cool in high-def.
On to the Tar Heels.
Pitching
The Beavers are better set up from a pitching standpoint - unlike last season. We should be able to do just about anything we want with our rotation and relief staff. So who will we see from North Carolina?
Here are the starters from the last few games for UNC:
June 21 (2 days rest) Adam Warren - 6.0 IP, 82 Pitches
June 20 (3 days rest) Robert Woodard - 6.2 IP, 84 P
June 19 (4 days rest) Luke Putkonen - 7.0 IP, 95 P
June 17 (6 days rest) Alex White - 1.1 IP, 51 P
June 15 (8 days rest) Robert Woodard - 1.2 IP, 38 P
Adam Warren - 4.1 IP, 64 P
Looks like we will see Alex White in game one. He's a freshman right-hander out of Greenville, NC. He's 6-3 and 193 lbs. He is lets a lot of people on base with his 1.48 whip. He allows 4.5 walks per game and almost a hit an inning. However, he is also their best strikeout starter at 7.84 K/9. The K's probably helps him out quite a bit. Although his ERA of 4.74 isn't great. He got shelled by Rice in game 2, and that put the Heels in the losers bracket.
Alex White (6-6) - 4.74 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, .269 BAA, .742 OPS against
Game 2 starter will probably be either Luke Putkonen or Robert Woodard. Woodard didn't have a ton of pitches so he could probably pitch of four days rest. Plus, he pitched against the Beavs in game 2 last year. But who knows. It probably depends on who wins game one. I'd bet on Woodard, who is a senior, over the sophomore Putkonen.
Robert Woodard (11-2) - 3.19 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, .266 BAA, .671 OPS against
Luke Putkonen (8-1) - 4.44 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, .272 BAA, .719 OPS against
Both of these righty pitchers keep the walks down, have around 6.5 K/9, and have a fairly high amount of hits allowed (more than 1 per inning). But they are both solid. We need to win game 1 against the freshman to keep the pressure on.
Hitting
The batting order for the Tar Heels will probably look something like this:
Reid Fronk, lf
Tim Fedroff, rf
Josh Horton, ss
Tim Federowicz, c
Dustin Ackley, 1b
Chad Flack, 3b
Kyle Seager, dh
Seth Williams, cf
Garrett Gore, 2b
They are the opposite of Fullerton and Irvine on the speed/power spectrum. They attempted 69 steals and were successful about 68% of the time. But they hit 70 HRs, 23 triples, and 139 doubles. With a team average of .316 and OPS of .859 they are definitely dangerous at the plate. Nothing we haven't seen before though.
Their top hitters are:
AVE OPS 2B 3B HR RBI BB SB RCWe just have to continue to get ahead of hitters and let the defense do their jobs because these guys don't strikeout much. If we can avoid free bases (BBs, HBP) we will be fine and should continue the great pitching.
Dustin Ackley .403 1.035 20 3 9 72 29 11 78
Josh Horton .335 .997 18 6 9 53 47 6 64
Reid Fronk .319 .974 19 5 11 56 39 1 59
Tim Fedroff .342 .897 7 5 5 40 19 5 40
The Beavers get to play the team they beat last year to win it all. Awesome. Both teams are different than last year, but yet much the same in many respects. The road to the championship series was flipped this year. It was UNC who ran through their side of the bracket and were waiting for the Beavs.
This should be a fun series. I really hope we sweep this thing. I want to win it in totally convincing fashion. The complete opposite of last year. We played the most games possible last year and this year I want the least.
So who starts game 1? Stutes could probably start, but I think we should stick with Reyes. It has the least pressure because its not an elimination game. Plus, if we win we are setup for game 2 with Stutes.
I'll take a look at the Tar Heels tonight and share what I've learned.
Go Beavers!
The Beavers took the exact opposite path from what they did last year. 3 win, 0 losses on their way to the Championship Series. Last year they played the maximum number of games to win the National Championship. This year they have an opportunity to win it in the shortest number of games. How sweet would that be. How sweet would back-to-back titles be?!
Early comments on the game.
* Could the ESPN guys (Orel and Mike) talk any more about the Anteaters? It was like the Beavs weren't even on the field for the first 6 innings.
* I think Mike Patrick has player name-dyslexia. He constantly call the player who just made a play the name from the guy on the other team playing the same position. It was uncanny. Every game.
* Orel's son should reconsider his USC commitment and come to OSU!
* I had a feeling Mitch Canham would be a hero today. He was due.
* Daniel Turpen settled down after a couple of innings and and just was lights out all game. His slider was nasty tonight and the fastball was popping.
Rice or UNC next. Both teams who have a chip on their shoulder from last season. Who cares! Lets beat 'em!
Go Beavers!
The Beavers next CWS opponent is set. UC Irvine beat ASU in the 10th inning tonight to get the chance to play the Beavs. I'm glad we don't have to play ASU because I'm guessing they would have been a lot better the second time around. I wish we didn't have to use Patterson, because he could have started this game. Now, I'm guessing it will be Turpen. No problem there, lots of experience. Plus, Patterson can put out any fires if necessary.
So what about this UC Irvine team?
I know one thing, they can't have much pitching left. They have played two extra inning games in the last two games. Plus, they haven't had a day off in a few days.
Who will the starter be? They may go for Scott Gorgan. He started on Saturday. That would be 4 days rest so he may not be able to go very long. (EDIT: scratch that, he pitched 2 innings last night) They have a ton of guys who have started, so it could be almost anyone.
One question, why did their closer not get in to the first two games. He's got great numbers. Then they put him in against ASU and he blows it.
Some thoughts:
* Their hitting is good at .319, but not a ton of HRs.
* Tons of SBs. 138 on the year with a 73% SB%. Nice.
* Cody Cipriano is the big power hitter with 13 HRs, 58 RBI, and a 1.020 OPS. He'll be hitting 3rd.
* Weird. Their lead off hitter, Taylor Holiday, is also their first baseman. That might be a first for me. His .351 AVE and .417 OBP and great speed makes him a good fit. Plus, he seems to field his position great.
* They have a TON of triples. Whoa. 32 triples? Thats only 5 less than their HRs. The must be one seriously fast team.
* Ben Orloff has 34 sacrifices. Yes, he is the number 2 hitter.
To win I think we need to take advantage of their tired pitching and not walk a lot of guys. They run and manufacture runs way to good to help them out at all.
Go Beavers!
I had to post these photos taken by the Omaha World-Herald from the game against ASU.
The blowup doll Canzano was talking about. Not as lewd as I thought it would be.
Lennerton's HR looks painful. The kid should have brought a glove.
The Beavers won their opening game at the College World Series. It was a classic OSU win. They scratch out a couple of runs against the other team's ace and the defense and pitching gets the job done. That said, we were really lucky to have won after that misplayed fly ball by John Wallace that should have been the last out. You just knew there would be some drama after that.
Great games from Scott Sanchi and Jorge Reyes. They won the game for us. Now on to ASU. First, a couple of observations.
* Darwin Barney and Joey Wong had one of the best double plays I've ever seen. It made the WebGems on Baseball Tonight after the game. But props to Lechelt and Lennerton too for some great defensive plays as well. Great game.
* The Mike Lissman thing is not a good thing. The story is definitely getting some legs (ESPN link) and the mention of it in the first inning yesterday was just plain embarrassing. I could almost hear the yells of "cheaters!" from Charlottesville, Ann Arbor, and Eugene. In the future, when in doubt suspend the kid for a series. At least you can say you did something. You rarely get in trouble for punishing a little, but if you don't punish at all or let them off on a tchnicality, then you are putting yourself out there for major scrutiny. Just look at the red card situation with youth soccer.
* This experience is huge for guys like Jorge Reyes, Joey Wong, Blake Keitzman, and all the other young guys who will be leading us over the next couple of years. Jorge will be a great ace next season.
On to ASU:
* Their hitting reminds me of Michigan, only better.
* Brett Wallace has a 1.201 OPS to go with his .416 AVE, 16 HRs, and 78 RBI. Thats approaching Barry Bonds levels. Yikes.
* These guys take a lot of walks. Stutes needs to be on and around the strike zone or they will not help him out.
* They bat .348 as a team and have a .973 OPS. This will be the story of the game. Can our hot pitching beat their hitting.
* Not sure who they are pitching, but its not Mike Leake. Both of the remaining starters are good but have about double the walk rate. That should help us get baserunners on and score some runs. I'd rather see Brian Flores because he gives up the long ball a bit, but he and Satow are good.
* The bullpen is a bit sketchy. ASU knows it and that could help us towards the end of the game. Even their closer has a .271 BAA.
Its time for Mike Stutes to get some redemption for our earlier losses in the Pac-10 season. Go Beavers!
OSU Beavers Baseball has arrived. We've weathered a "rebuilding" year and made it back to the College World Series for a 3rd consecutive year. But with success comes other things. There are the groupies (love them), attackers (thanks Rachel), the copy-cats (stick to track), and even some collateral damage (sort of). I've got a few thoughts on two of these things.
1) Rachel Bachman is trying to be the Woodward and Bernstein of the OSU program (link). Give it a rest. First, why bring this up now when it happened weeks ago? Do you bring it up if the Beavs don't make the CWS? Why not during their late-season slump. I admit that I was surprised at the lack of reprecussions on Lissman, but to publish this story the morning of their first game? Lame.
2) The Ducks need to stick to what they're good at (link, reaction). In the spring, that's track. What "Pre" and "Track-Town USA" isn't a big enough hint? Stick to track. OSU will handle the baseball for this state. The chips fell this way 30 years ago and this is what you get. Just because track is down these days doesn't mean you should spend tons of money getting D1 baseball back on campus. Let us have our success.
On to Cal-State Fullerton. I don't have time for a full preview of this one, but upon looking at them over the last week I noticed a few things:
* They are OSU's twin. Light-hitting and good pitching (stats). Their .280 team batting average mirrors ours and only 3 players have a better than .300 average.
* Wes Roemer, today's stater, may be having a down year, but he's still awesome. Only 22 walks in 136 IP. Then there's the 143 K's. Anytime you see more K's than IP, thats real good. When the walks are that low, that's frickin awesome. His only knock is that he's a little hittable this year giving up 137 hits for a .262 BAA.
* The bullpen looks good, but the best relief pitchers may not be their closer (assuming its still Adam Jorgenson).
* The hitter to watch out for? Clark Hardman. He's hitting .391 with 14 2Bs and 5 HRs. Not to mention the .960 OPS. Looks like he's a free swinger though. Only 12 BBs in 261 ABs.
* No one is super fast on their team, but they like to run anyways. Their SB% is 62% which is OK, but you're suppose to be about 66% or you're actually hurting your team and scoring less.
Be there at 4pm today. ESPN or radio. I'll be radio (dang weddings!). I'm going to be like those ESPN commercials with the "MVPs" who managed to keep track of games while at ballets or weddings.
Go Beavers!
Another stellar performance from a Beaver starter. We hit a little better, but they helped us a ton with walks and mental mistakes. Can you say 10(!) walks? Wow. Add a hit batter that started the rally. You can't spot a decent team that many base runners.
MVP of the series? That's a tough one.
If I were going to give it to a hitter, it would be Joey Wong because hit had the only hit Sunday to drive in the game winning run. Plus he drove in 2 runs on Monday with a walk and a suicide squeeze bunt.
Every pitcher was lights out, so I'd give a co-pitcher award to Mike Stutes and Jorge Reyes.
Overall, I'll give co-MVPs to Joey Wong and Jorge Reyes. Just because they had their heroics in the huge game 1 win and they were both freshman stepping up. Great for the future!
From Michigan I have to give a huge cap tip to Zach Putnam, the starter on Sunday, for no-hitting the Beavs through 8. Also, Eric Rose who had two jacks and erased the "a" from his first name.
More photos from game 2:
Stutes Ready
Scaffolding Crew
Firefighters
Anyone know how to get a hold of Lucky or Alex over at Pure-Orange? My login hasn't worked for weeks and the contact email they post on the site doesn't seem to exist anymore.
Help!
email me at protherj at hotmail if you have any info.
Whew! That was a classic pitching duel today. Hip! Hip! Jorge!
Barely a ball went past the infield all game. Not sure about pitching Patterson, but since we won it will probably be good. I wonder if they will continue to use Patterson out of the pen or save him for Monday just in case. Turpen would then start on Monday in that case.
Stutes tomorrow. Reyes did well as a strikeout righty. Hopefully Stutes can keep the HBP and walks down and just let his defense do the work like Jorge did.
Eric Wilson for Michigan. Big lefty power pitcher. Maybe that will help get our righties going. He is a good #2 and will be tough. He walks quite a few so we need to make him pitch.
Here's some more photos I took at the game:
Nice LF scaffolding!
Batting practice...
Chomping at the bit for some baseball? Check out some Super Regional info and my preview of the Wolverines below.
Interesting facts on their hitters:
AVE OPS SB HR
1 ss Jason Christian .335 .949 14 7
2 rf Brad Roblin .327 .797 22 1
3 1b Nate Recknagel .359 1.085 4 12
4 dh Zach Putnam .341 .943 1 8
5 3b Adam Abraham .330 .860 0 5
6 c Doug Pickens .347 .874 3 5
7 lf Derek VanBuskirk .386 .983 4 3
8 2b Kevin Cislo .372 .890 7 1
9 cf Eric Rose .308 .762 34 2
YouTube Beaver regional highlights - DCBeavLooks like the weather may be a bit interesting today. The consensus seems to be that rain will come in the afternoon at some point, but it may hold off a bit. However, looking at the radar, it may be sprinkling for much on the day. Hopefully the turf can do its job and not make us have a delay or rainout.
Corvallis Radar - Weather Underground
Corvallis Forecast - Weather Underground
Corvallis Weather - Weather.com
As far as the game, here's a nice preview in the McMinnville News-Register:
Beavers prepare for Wolverine invasion
Go Beavers!
This morning I woke up got a scone, coffee, OJ, chair, and paper and headed down to Gill Coliseum. I got there a little before 7am fully expecting a huge line. The doors were open, so that was a good thing. I was happy when I showed up as the 10th person in line.
I knew at that point, I was going to get my tickets for the Beavers baseball super regional.
However, I wasn't going to rely on being in line early as my only shot at tickets. I had two friends furiously refreshing the web site since the web tickets were available at 7am. By 7:05 the web site couldn't handle the load. I settled in for a long wait until the ticket window opens at 8:30am. Then the call:
"It was an emotional roller coaster. Just like the Civil War last season. But I got through and you have tickets." my buddy said. "I'm going to put this confirmation on the fridge."
45 minutes in and I had tickets. Joy!
Since I got them early, I had some time to take photos of the construction:
Gill Annex
Reser 2 Construction
And then there's this:
Go Beavs!
Great hitting, great pitching. Wow.
The Beavers beat Virginia to complete the improbable comeback. Since Michigan beat Vanderbilt (the #1 team in the polls) last night in 10 innings, we get to host! That means a mad rush for tickets.
Season ticket holders: call or visit the ticket office. Now is your chance to get tickets.
The rest of us: We have to wait until Thursday morning. 7am online (that will be interesting) or 8:30am at the ticket office (better get there an hour or two ahead)
Super Regional Ticket Information - OSUBeavers.com
Go Beavs!
I've got the essentials. Beavers vs. Viginia NOW!
Scoreboard / gametracker
Chat
Reading Material:
RATCLIFFE: UVa drops the ball vs. Oregon State
Baseball America 1
Baseball America 2
Today was a great day to be a Beaver!
Man, that 8th inning was simply awesome! Lead off HR and Wallace coming through HUGE! Even Lennerton broke out a bit with a HR. Seems like everyone is heating up a bit now. All we need is Mitch Canham to break out and start raking.
Turpen and Patterson are also huge. Great pitching. We need one more shut down performance tomorrow.
According to Mike Parker, it looks like Stutes tomorrow. Although Anton Maxwell is a possibility. At least he and Kunz should be nicely rested for the game. 
9am PST tomorrow! Come on Beavs!
The Beavers made it past their first hurdle, Rutgers. They won 5-2 on great pitching from Reyes and Turpen. Plus, Lechelt bombed a HR late in the game to provide some breathing room. Good win, on to Virginia at 3pm.
Go Beavers!
The webcams look good and there's nothing on the radar. Stay tuned for a game at 10am!
OSU vs. Rutgers - part 2!
Go Beavers!
Looks like we get another day of rest.
No. 25 OSU Postponed Until Monday - OSUBeavers.com
I'm not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. I definitely thought the rain delay was good because we had a really late game on Saturday. Still we have to win out no matter how you look at it so it will be an uphill battle no matter how you slice it. If we could win we may avoid Vandy (the #1 team going into the tournament). They lost to Michigan on Saturday and play them again tonight to avoid elimination. They need to win twice.
10am tomorrow morning first pitch! Unfortunately, it looks like rain again tomorrow... Forecast - Weather.com
The Beavs almost pulled off a huge win last night, but couldn't get over the hump. Such a classic playoff game. Drama everywhere. When Mitch almost lost the game with two passed balls, but then came through to tie the game in the bottom of the inning. Or when Darwin smashed the home run right after Lissman had been called out for not touching second (should have been a two run HR and a game winning dang it). Or Stutes battling all game for one of his best performances and giving us a great chance to win. Such a good game. How could we not win?!
It's going to be a tough road to get back to having a chance to win this regional, but its possible with our pitching staff. Anton Maxwell, and Turpen could both start if necessary. And to win we need to go 5 games (beat Virginia twice). Sounds a bit like last season...
We play early this morning (10am) and hopefully we can win to get another shot at UVA.
EDIT @ 1pm PST: The game was (obviously) postponed until 3pm PST. To see how the weather is doing go here: WeatherBonk
or here: National Weather Service
No Radio? No Problem.
Norm Maves Jr. is live blogging the regional games over at the "Behind the Beavers Beat" blog at OregonLive.com.
Also, the NCAA has live gamecasts and a live scoreboard.
Or, just head over to the Pure Orange message boards and get the latest there.
Friday night was a perfect win for the Beavs. Not too much drama, lots of hitting, and some great pitching. John Wallace was the man. I think he has to play more now. He's got a huge amount of experience from last season's run. Plus, he needs to step up next year and be the next stud.
I just LOVE articles like this from the CSTV recap:
Oregon State Defeats Rutgers 5-1 in Game Two of Charlottesville Regional
Defending national champion Beavers rally from early deficit
Virginia Info:Jeremy Farrell - .394 ave, .563 slg, .500 obp in a half of a season.Luckily Greg Miclat is hurt. He had 32 sbs and was batting .376.
Brandon Guyer - .369 ave, 8 hrs, 50 rbi, 19 2b, .997 ops
David Adams - .372 ave, 11 2b, 4 3b, 5 hrs, 42 rbi, .979 ops
