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Oregon State Stays Strong in College World Series

Jun 22, 2018

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No. 3 national seed OREGON STATE (50-11-1) advanced past two College World Series elimination games, defeating fellow Pac-12 foe Washington, 14-5, and No. 6 North Carolina 11-6. OSU faces Mississippi State on Friday at 12 p.m. PT on ESPN in the CWS semifinals. The two teams last met in the 2013 CWS, with the Beavers dropping first round and semifinal contests to the eventual runner-up Bulldogs .

The Pac-12 has the most NCAA Championship series (44) and CWS semifinal appearances (68) of any Power 5 conference in the nation.
Pac-12 - 68 (Finals 44; Semis 24)
SEC - 49 (Finals 28; Semis 21)
ACC - 36 (Finals 16; Semis 20)

3 – Current Pac-12 baseball members have reached the CWS semifinals in each of last three years, seven times in the past decade, 11 of the last 15 years, 16 of the last 20, and 20 of the last 25. Oregon State is making its second straight trip and its third CWS semifinals appearance in the past six years (2013, 2017, 2018).

6 - Oregon State ranks in the top-5 nationally in six statistical categories, including the second-best win-loss percentage in the country (.815).

50 - Oregon State (50-11-1) earned its 50th victory of the season by defeating rival WASHINGTON on Monday, marking the fourth time in program history the Beavers have won 50-or-more games (2006, 2013, 2017, 2018) and is the 20th time the feat has been accomplished by a Pac-12 member.

6 – OSU is one of just six schools nationally to win consecutive CWS titles, and one of three from the Pac-12. USC won five straight titles from 1970-74, Stanford went back-to-back from 1987-88, and the Beavers followed suit from 2006-07.

1 – At least one league program has advanced to the National Championship Series in 38-of-71 seasons, including six matchups of current Pac-12 members (1963, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1988, 1998). League members have totaled a national-best 28 CWS crowns along with 16 runner-up finishes, including a national champion or runner-up in eight of the last 15 seasons.

NCAA CWS Titles by Conference Members
USC - 12
Arizona State - 5
Arizona - 4
California - 2
Oregon State - 2
Stanford - 2
UCLA - 1

OREGON STATE: The Beavers broke two team records during its win over the Huskies, including its single-season hit record with 689 this year after finishing with 16 hits on Monday, surpassing OSU’s 2006 National Championship team (684). Tyler Malone's eighth-inning home run against UW was the Beavers' 61st homer of the season, breaking the previous program record of 60 that was set in 1998. Oregon State now moves to 20-9 in elimination games under Pat Casey’s tutelage. The last time a team won six elimination games in the NCAA CWS was when OSU won its 2006 national title. The Beavers are 31-2 in non-conference games this season with only one loss coming during the regular season. In College World Series history only four teams have scored 14-or-more runs in the past decade.

In the College World Series opener, Oregon State’s late rally fell short as North Carolina took Game 2, 8-6. Junior Trevor Larnach went 3-for-5 with two runs scored, a pair of RBIs and recorded his first career triple and a double in the game.

Oregon State then bounced back to eliminate North Carolina on Wednesday as it rallied with four RBIs in the top of the eight and ninth innings to secure the victory. Oregon State now owns a 5-2 record all-time against North Carolina, with all of the matchups coming in the College World Series. Adley Rutschman tallied four RBIs on the evening to become Oregon State's single-season record holder for runs batted in with 77.

Senior pitcher Luke Heimlich and junior second baseman Nick Madrigal both earned 2018 All-America honors, becoming the seventh and eighth players in program history to record All-America status in multiple seasons during their careers.

STATS: Oregon State ranks in the top-5 nationally in six statistical categories, including the second-best win-loss percentage in the country (.815). OSU ranks third nationally in batting average (3.22), hits (689) and on base percentage (.419), fourth in WHIP (1.19), fifth in doubles (141) and slugging percentage (.492) and sixth in hits allowed per inning (7.50). National Pitcher of the Year and back-to-back Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year Heimlich leads the nation with 16 wins.

PAC-12 SCHOLAR-ATHLETE: Oregon State’s Jack Anderson was named 2018 Pac-12 Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year on June 19. The senior outfielder boasts a 3.71 grade-point average as a kinesiology major. He has earned Pac-12 All-Academic First Team selections in each of the last three seasons (2016-18) and was a CoSIDA Academic All-District 8 First-Team honoree the past two years. Anderson has played in 56 games this season, starting 41, and is batting .275 with nine doubles, one triple and 13 RBIs.

WASHINGTON: The Huskies posted a historic 35-26 overall record for a .574 winning percentage this season and reached the 60-game mark for the first time since going 36-25 (.590) in 2006. Washington’s postseason journey started in the Conway Regional where the squad collected three wins, besting Connecticut (7-1 and 9-6) and host Coastal Carolina (11-6). In the program’s first-ever Super Regional appearance, the Huskies took two games against Cal State Fullerton (8-5, 2-5, 6-5) to reach the NCAA College World Series for the first time in school history. Washington came up just short with a 1-0 loss to Mississippi State in its CWS opener. Junior right-hander Joe DeMers pitched 7 1/3 innings, allowing seven hits and a walk with two strikeouts. He threw just 72 pitches, 55 of them strikes, and induced 14 groundouts. The game appeared destined for extra innings, but Mississippi State scored the lone run of the game in the bottom of the ninth.

PAC-12 CWS MATCHUP: In the third game of the College World Series, two Pac-12 teams met for the first time since Arizona defeated UCLA during its 2012 national title run.

Washington jumped out to an early lead, scoring three runs in the bottom of the third, before Oregon State responded with four runs in the fifth inning to capture the lead. UW regained at 5-4 lead as senior infielder Levi Jordan drove in a run with a single to left field in the bottom of the fifth.

The game encountered a four hour and 31 minute rain delay that halted the game at the top of the sixth. After retuning to the field, Oregon State’s offense erupted and took control of the game as Michael Gretler came through with an RBI single and redshirt-senior Kyle Nobach crushed a three-run homer to put the Beavers ahead 9-5. OSU tacked on five more runs in the eighth to secure the victory and keep its postseason alive. Freshman pitcher Kevin Abel earned the win, allowing one earned run while striking out five in four innings of relief work that came on both ends of the weather delay.

GOLDEN SPIKESCALIFORNIA’s Andrew Vaughn, the 2018 Pac-12 Player of the Year, is 1-of-4 players tabbed a USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Finalist. The award will be presented after the CWS on June 28 in Los Angeles. The sophomore ended his season with a .402 batting average, 23 home runs, 63 RBI and a .531 on-base percentage. Additionally, his .819 slugging percentage was the best single-season mark in Golden Bears’ history.

The Pac-12 tied for the most USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award Semifinalists of any Conference with four student-athletes selected, two from Oregon State and one from Arizona State and California: OSU’s Larnach, and Madrigal, Arizona State’s Torkelson, and California’s Vaughn.

TWO-TIME PITCHER OF THE YEAR: Oregon State LHP Luke Heimlich is one-of-six pitchers to earn Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year honors twice (2017, 2018) and enters the College World Series with the nation-best 16 wins this season. Heimlich was recently honored as National Pitcher of the Year by College Baseball Foundation.

GRENIER TABBED BROOKS WALLACE AWARD WINNER: Oregon State shortstop Cayden Grenier was named the Brooks Wallace Award winner as the nation’s top shortstop. Grenier becomes the first Pac-12 player to earn the award. Grenier hit .322 with five home runs and 44 RBI, while maintaining  a .973 fielding percentage (221 total chances/73 putouts/142 assists/6 errors).

ALL AMERICANS: Nine Pac-12 student-athletes appear on the Collegiate Baseball NCAA D1 All-American teams. Nine Pac-12 freshman appear on the Collegiate Baseball 2018 Freshman All-American list. ASU’s Torkelson landed Pac-12 Freshman of the Year honors and Collegiate Baseball’s Co-Freshman Player of the Year for ranking in the top-10 in multiple Conference offensive categories. He is also the current national home run leader with 25 this season, which doubled Barry Bonds’ 1983 ASU freshman record of 11.

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper All-Americans

First Team
Luke Heimlich, OSU - LHP
Gage Canning, ASU - OF

Second Team
Jack Little, STAN - RP
Andrew Vaughn, CAL - 1B
Spencer Torkelson, ASU - 1B
Chase Strumpf, UCLA - 2B
Trevor Larnach, OSU – OF

Third Team
Jake Mulholland, OSU - RP
Adley Rutschman, OSU – C

All-Freshman Team
Spencer Torkelson, ASU - 1B
Brendan Beck, STAN - RHP
Zach Pettway, UCLA - RHP
Jacob Palisch, STAN - RP
Kevin Abel, OSU - RP
Holden Powell, UCLA - RP
Dellan Raish, ASU - RP
Gage Workman, ASU - 3B
Tim Tawa, STAN - OF

Ten Pac-12 baseball players appear on the 2018 NCBWA Division I All-America Teams, while four players were named to the All-Freshman Team.

NCBWA All-Americans
First Team
Andrew Vaughn, CAL, 1B            
Trevor Larnach, OSU, OF            
Luke Heimlich, OSU, RHP          
Jack Little, STAN, RP

Second Team
Nick Madrigal, OSU, 2B              

Third Team
Adley Rutschman, OSU, C          
Spencer Torkelson, ASU, 1B      
Chase Strumpf, UCLA, 2B          
Kris Bubic, STAN, SP                  
Jake Mulholland, OSU, RP

NCBWA Freshman All-Americans

First Team
Spencer Torkelson*, ASU, 1B
Brendan Beck, STAN, SP           

Second Team
Zach Pettway, UCLA, SP            
Jacob Palisch, STAN, RP            
* NCBWA Freshman of the Year

Nine Pac-12 student-athletes appear on the Baseball America NCAA D1 All-America Teams. Oregon State led the national with four honorees across all three teams, highlighted by first team selection Trevor Larnach. Six schools had two players honored including two Pac-12 members —Arizona State and California (Southern Mississippi, Stetson, Tennessee Tech and Texas Tech). In all, 35 schools are represented on the All-America teams.

Baseball America All-Americans

First Team
Trevor Larnach, OSU, OF            
Andrew Vaughn, CAL, 1B            
Jack LIttle, STAN, RHP               

Second Team
Adley Rutschman, OSU, C          
Spencer Torkelson, ASU, 1B      
Cadyn Grenier, OSU, SS              
Tanner Dodson, CAL, OF            

Third Team
Nick Madrigal, OSU, 2B              
Gage Canning, ASU, OF

COSIDA All-Academic All-District: The College Sports Information Directors of America announced Google Cloud Academic All-District 8 team honors highlighting 5-of-11 Pac-12 student-athletes.

Jake Bird, UCLA
Collin Maier, WSU
Daniel Rosica, UCLA
Cadyn Grenier, OSU
Jack Anderson, OSU

CONFERENCE STANDINGS (Expanded Standings)

Teams Pac-12 Record Overall Record
#3 Stanford  22-8 46-12
#2 Oregon State 20-9-1 51-11-1
Washington  20-10 35-26
UCLA 19-11 38-21
California 16-14 32-22
Arizona 14-16 34-22
Arizona State 13-17 23-32
USC 12-18 26-28
Oregon 12-18 26-29
Washington State 8-21-1 16-33-1
Utah 8-22 16-39

COLLEGE WORLD SERIES SCHEDULE

Wednesday, June 20    
No. 3 OREGON STATE vs. No. 6 North Carolina  ESPN 4 p.m.
Friday, June 22 (TBD)    
No. 3 OREGON STATE vs. Mississippi State ESPN TBD

2018 PAC-12 PLAYER AND PITCHER OF THE WEEK

 Week of Player Pitcher
Feb. 20 Trevor Larnach, OSU Tristan Beck, STAN
Feb. 27 Jonah Davis, CAL Joe DeMers, WASH
March 6 Spencer Torkelson, ASU Tristan Beck, STAN
March 12 Andrew Vaughn, CAL Parker Kelly, ORE
March 19 Gage Canning, ASU Kyle Hurt, USC
March 26 Brandon Wulf, STAN Luke Heimlich, OSU
April 2 Andrew Vaughn, CAL Kenyon Yovan, ORE
April 9 Chase Strumpf, UCLA Scotty Sunitsch, WSU
April 16 Trevor Larnach, OSU Luke Heimlich, OSU
April 24 Andrew Vaughn, CAL Parker McFadden, WSU
April 30 Steven Kwan, OSU Kenyon Yovan, ORE
April 30 Steven Kwan, OSU Kenyon Yovan, ORE
May 7 Will Matthiessen, STAN Cody Deason, ARIZ
May 14 Joe Wainhouse, WASH Luke Heimlich, OSU
May 21 Jeremy Ydens, UCLA Luke Heimlich, OSU
May 28 Levi Jordan, WASH Aaron Shortridge, CAL