No. 1 Oregon State barrels into College World Series
Beavers can make case for best of all time
OMAHA, Neb. — Oregon State already can make a case for ranking among the greatest college baseball teams of all time. If the Beavers win the national championship at the College World Series, there will be no argument.
At 54-4, the Beavers have the fewest losses of any team entering the CWS since Texas came in at 57-4 in 1982. They take a 21-game winningstreakintotheirgameagainst Cal State Fullerton (39-22) at noon Saturday. Florida State (45-21) plays Louisiana State (48-17) at 5 p.m.
Oregon State won the Pac-12 by six games, the largest margin since the conference ended divisional play in 1999, and outscored three regional opponents 27-3 as the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Beavers then cruised to a two-game sweep of Vanderbilt in super regionals.
Now comes the hard part — finishing the job on the college game’s grandest stage at TD Ameritrade Park.
“They’re going to have to adapt to the environment, and that is a huge challenge for all teams,” said retired Hall of Fame coach Augie Garrido, who won two national championships at Texas and one at Fullerton.
Oregon State takes the next step toward its third national title since 2006 without its top pitcher, Luke Heimlich, and starting left fielder Christian Donahue. Heimlich did not pitch in super regionals after it was revealed last week that when he was a teenager he pleaded guilty to molesting a 6-year-old girl. He did not accompanytheteamtoomahabecausehe didn’t want to be a distraction.
Coachpatcaseysaidfridaythat Donahue was suspended for the CWS for an unspecified violation of team rules.
Thebeavershaveapitchingstaff that ranks No. 1 in the country with a 1.8 ERA. Jake Thompson is 14-0, Pac12 player of the year Nick Madrigal is batting a team-leading .383, and KJ Harrison has hit three of his eight home runs in the last five games.
“Iftheywinitall,it’sgoingtobe hard for them not to be considered No. 1 all-time,” Baseball America editor John Manuel said. “They had another national seed in their conference in Stanford. Arizona is in their league and was national runner-up last year. This wasn’t a vintage Pac-12 year, but it’s still a strong conference. They played good competition and blew everyone’s doors off.”