There is some sun at last, well at least in California where the Beavs will be traveling to for their opening series against UC Santa Barbara beginning this Friday. Yes that's right this Friday! After another long off-season we are diving fast back into Oregon State baseball!

The Beavs open a four game series against UC Santa Barbara then go to San Diego to play Pacific, San Diego State, San Diego, and Kansas State. From San Diego the team continues to hit the road and is headed Arizona for the Coca-Cola Classic. The team's home opening series begins March 9th against West Virginia, which is part of the Nike Showcase where the Beavs will also play Illinois, Connecticut, and Oklahoma. Finally in just little over a month the Beavs have their conference opener against Cal starting March 16th in Berkeley.

The season has kind-of sneaked up on me in many ways. It has been in the back of my mind for sure but it also has been a bit of a quiet build up. That said though it sure hit me that we almost upon another exciting baseball run when I recently saw the OSU site clicker at only 6 days left!

To build up some more excitement here are some stories about this season's team and after the break I have my own preview of what I will be looking for in the 2012 OSU baseball campaign.

Andy's own mini-preview here on BtD: Baseball Pre-Season Ranking

OSU Athletic Dept. schedule announcement: Baseball Announces 2012 Schedule

OSU Athletic Dept pieces focused on Tony Bryant: Tony Bryant Named Preseason First-Team All-American - Tony Bryant Named To NCBWA Stopper Of The Year Watch List

And an opening day of practice video:

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Final Score: Oregon St. 67 Oregon 60

It was a hard fought back and forth Civil War game today in Corvallis. OSU freshman Ali Gibson had a huge second half to lead the Beavs from an eight point deficit to win the first 2011-12 installment of the Civil War series.

In a live televised game the Beavs overcame some poor first half shooting, poorly executed inside the post offense, and Oregon's so-called high octane offense to rally from eight points down late in the second half, at the 7:36 mark, with a 22-7 run to the finish to beat the Ducks 67 to 60.

Gibson had a career high 23 points that included some very timely 3-pointers and a wonderful alley-oop basket late into the game. The highlight was her 3-pointer, right, to put the Beavs up five with just under two minutes left in the game.

"They weren't recruited (by Oregon)," Oregon St. coach Scott Rueck said of his squad. "They believed they had something to say about that."

Gibson wasn't alone though and Patricia Bright had some strong defense down the stretch including more blocks, none more key than a late block when the Ducks were trying to close the final couple minutes gap. Bright also put in a double double with 12 rebounds and 11 points to go along with her continued above record pace four blocks.

And Alyssa Martin hit two key three-pointers in the final few minutes that were instrumental in closing the eight point gap Oregon built including the 3-pointer that gave the Beavs a 59 to 57 lead at the 2:47 mark, a lead that the Beavs then did not relinquish, and she also made some important last minute free-throws.

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With most of the attention being garnered by the men's team (both good and bad so far this season) I wanted to take a moment to update everyone on the women's season so far. Not totally sure it is the mid-way point overall, but the women are also on the final stretch of their 2011-12 season.

The women this season are also having their struggles in conference play with a record of 3 and 5. Much like their counterparts the men the team started out well in non-conference play going 9 and 2 and winning their first six games (including a non-record counting exhibition game). Funny enough the women also have paralled the men with some tough conference losses, such as a double OT loss to Washington State and a last second loss to Arizona. At the same time they have had some impressive overall performances such as beating Arizona State and playing the 4th ranked Cardinal tough in a 67 to 60 loss that the Beavs were winning at half time (35 to 31).

I was at the Arizona loss and it was interesting in how much it reminded my of watching the men's team this year in that the Beavs and WIldcats played a pretty rough first half, then things got going in the second half and actually looked as if OSU was going to take control, but then some sloppy last minute play and execution on both sides of the ball ended in a heartbreaking loss much like what happened when the men played Arizona! But from my brief observations this season I was impressed with the inside game of the Beavs, especially on defense such as Patricia Bright (featured in the upper right) who has a mind-staggering 66 blocks to date! (But wow is women's basketball officiating the polar opposite of men's in that they actually let them play?!?)

Some highlights so far this season for the Beavs include: Patricia Bright's average of 3.5 blocks per game that leads the Pac-12 and is fourth in the country (and is the sixth-most in a single season challenging the record set last season by El Sara Greer). Sage Indendi (right) making her 100th career three-pointer (now is at 102). And the team's leading scorer being Freshman Ali Gibson. Additionally for the most part, except for two games (losses to pretty good St. Marys and California teams), the team has not lost games by large margins and have been in the middle of almost all their games. Of course all these individual accomplishments and team minor victories does not mean they will all end up translating into a winning record, but the signs are there for a possible strong final run this season.

Following are some season stats and a few more pics, and just to note that women's Civil War game will be televised live this Saturday on FSN at 4:00 in what looks to be an important game for both teams in terms of conference standings.

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I was at the game last night and wanted to offer my quick thoughts about the outcome. No [more] pics though, just opinions sorry!

I can understand a good amount of the frustration that I'm reading so far posted here. Granted it was a game that the Beavs had their chances to win, but as disappointed as I was with it all I also think jumping ONLY on the negative criticism wagon for this game does do the team a little disfavor with how much they put it on the line.

This is what over 3 hours of basketball came down to. (Photo by Andy Wooldridge)

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With the current pre-conference success of the OSU basketball team we now for the first time in many years are seeing small glimpses of the Orange Express tradition come back to Gill Coliseum. The Beavs this year have cranked up the offense and played some inspired overall defense against their non-conference opponents, at times reaching milestones such as 100 points for the first time in years, and scoring at least 90 points in four consecutive games for the first time since the 1980-81 season. What is starting to be very impressive at this early stage of the season is that we are now starting to hear about these comparisons and accomplishments that harken back to the greatest of all OSU basketball seasons: 1980-81 under Ralph Miller.

Now to be upfront I don't personally think this season yet is even close to being in the same league as the 1980-81 OSU basketball season, but I will admit it is fun to start to be able to think about the better years of a rich tradition. I mean this is the best start in 22 years! And even more amazing for such a program as OSU basketball that was the last time the Beavs played in the NCAA tournament (1989-90, and Gary Payton's senior year and back when I was going to school at OSU!).

So what was this 1980-81 season and why was it so special?

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As many around here are well aware of there is a big State of Oregon football game coming up this weekend. And as many who bleed orange and black know it is not a game we are necessarily looking forward to. The Beavs are coming off a big win against the Huskies last week, and the UofO is coming off a big loss to the Trojans, but in reality I’m not sure it makes that much difference. So for a moment I want to look back and look forward all at once.

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Gill Coliseum, 7 PM / No TV / BNO Video/Audio Stream / KEJO 1240 / KPAM 860 (Streaming)

Coming off a very solid 93 to 60 win over West Alabama, the Beavs now come up a solid opponent in the Hofstra Pride (1-0).  In the TicketCity Legends Classic opener the Beavs shot 55.6% from the field and an improved 71.4% from the free throw line.  Additionally the Beavs held West Alabama to 38.6% from the field, and out rebounded the Tigers 37 to 29.

What was even more impressive overall in the Monday night victory was that the win put the Beavs at 2-0 for the first time to start a season since the 2000-2001 season, they scored 58 first half points, and had five players in double digits (Burton, Cunningham, Starks, Collier, and Brandt).  It was a game like we have not seen from the Robinson era regardless of the opponent, and bodes well for a team that looks to be finding themselves as a team this year.

That all said though, things get a bit tougher with tonight's match up against last year's Colonial Athletic third place finishers, the Hofstra Pride.  Hofstra finished 21-12 overall last season and 14-4 in conference play, and lost their first game in the CBI.  This season the Pride have a season opening 89-71 win over Long Island University. Hofstra is a quality overall program, and has produced at least 20 wins in 5 of the last 7 seasons.

At the very least, this will be a good match up for Oregon State leading into a road trip to East Rutherford, N.J. to play Texas on Saturday and either NC State or Vandy (I would personally like some pay back for baseball with this possible match up!) on Monday.

So let's see how the Beavs come out in this game, and if they can keep up their well balanced team play and go to 3-0.  Join the discussion here!

Go Beavs!

I know a lot of the focus right now is on the football season winding down and the basketball seasons starting up, but there is some news of note with the OSU women's soccer team hosting Portland in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

The Beavs went 13-5-2 in the regular season (7-3-1 in Pac-12 play) and ended ranked 23rd in the country by the coaches.  Four players were named to All-Conference teams with junior Chelsea Buckland heading up the group by being named to the All-Conference first team. Named to the second team was Sophomore Jenna Richardson and named to the honorable mention team were seniors Colleen Boyd and Brittany Galindo.

The Portland Pilots are coming in at 9-9-1 (4-4-0 in WCC play), and the match begins at 7:00pm. The OSU Band will be on hand, and the members of Beaver Nation not on the road to California are encouraged to make a strong show of support for the team.

The Oregon State women’s soccer team and coaches are urging Beavers fans to get to Paul Lorenz Field with their orange and black on as early as possible for Friday’s NCAA 1st round game vs. University of Portland. General admission tickets will go on sale at 5:00 p.m. with the gates opening at the same time for fans to find their seats.

NCAA Soccer Ticket Information; Beaver Fans Urged to Arrive Early

So to the women's soccer group this season congrats on a great season and let's keep it going! Go Beavs!

(Photo: Jenna Richardson, from the OSU Athletic site)

I was able to view the Beavs online stream for their exhibition win over Pacific (Ore.) to the tune of a 64 to 33 score.   In this piece I go over some of my impressions, which keep in mind I saw this on the stream AND keep in mind this was an exhibition game, so take all of this as a tune up preview type of story!

In general the Beavs played very well on defense,  They held Pacific (Ore.) to 25.6%, and I can't remember exactly when but Pacific didn't break double digits until the second half, with the Beavs leading 33 to 9 at halftime.  On offense the Beavs looked good, but have to say not great BUT again for an opener exhibition game you expect rust, and also have to expect some lack of focus happening when you are up 33 to 9 at half.   That said the Beavs shot 49% from the field and 38% from 3-point land.  One area the team will be working on over the next couple weeks I'm sure, is that they also only shot 39% from the FT line and that is with getting to the line 21 times (in many ways they almost shot better from behind the 3-point arch).

But you know overall when we have gone through the other men's fall sport losing its opening exhibition game having this basketball win was sure satisfying for this Beavs fan.  

After the jump I'll break down my "what we might expect if this game actually had any indicators for the rest of the season."

(Photo: Jared Cunningham slamming, Oregon State versus California, February 26, 2011)

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We may be gearing up for Pac-12 football right now, but here is some quick news (and good news actually!) about the OSU baseball team.

First is that the baseball team actually took the field last Monday for a brief workout session (see: Baseball Gets Back To Business).

Additionally the fall 2011 recruiting class has been named ninth in the nation by Collegiate Baseball, which is good news in that the program seems to be restocking talent very well.  Five of these players were drafted by the MLB but elected to play ball at OSU: Jace Fry (LHP), Jordan Dunatov (OF/RHP), Carlos Rodriguez (LHP), Cole Brocker (RHP/OF/IF), and Nate Esposito (C/IF) and all could be names we hear more about this spring.  For more about this story see:  Baseball's Recruiting Class Rated Ninth By Collegiate Baseball and Collegiate Baseball: Current Recruiting Results.

And finally a story about the success of OSU players in summer league play: Nine Beavers Named Top Prospects In Collegiate Summer Leagues.

Go Beavs!

Welcome back to my "2011 Regular Season in Review."  In this installment I conclude with some general thoughts about where I see the team headed, and after the break included the stat breakdowns for the season.  The stats are interesting this year because none really jump out at you, but during most of the season the team played solid baseball as a team.  Stats are also funny in that overall, say especially for the offense, the stats are low on the national level but in most cases the Beavs out performed their opponents throughout the entire season.

So I guess the new big question is where is all of this headed?  For me personally I am going to quote myself back in the preseason preview: "Do I know where all of this is headed?  Not in the least this season, and that both scares me a bit and makes me excited for the possibilities."  As the season progressed I very much became more excited than nervous.  It was a pleasure looking forward to each series weekend, but now with the terrible ending to the season I'm starting to get into the "scares" me feeling all over again.  At the same time I really do feel the team, when we take into account the full season, has proven themselves worthy of playing in the postseason.  Along those lines though I am nervous about how well the team can now rally itself in a very all-or-nothing environment.

For the love of irony I guess, the team has done very well, in my opinion, against the higher caliber teams this season (the types they will see in the postseason), such as Connecticut, Arizona State, and UCLA.  Of course though the margin for error seen when playing some of the lesser caliber teams this year is going to be even less forgiving in the postseason.  There is still a little wiggle room, as both the 2006 and 2007 teams demonstrated, but the team will be called on to really reach deep at times now.  Again though the team has played beneath their higher caliber performances to lose to teams, quite frankly, they had no business losing to.  If this team, the one that underplays to the competition, shows up in the postseason it won't be going far.  If the team finds that chemistry and energy it had during the stretch that saw OSU baseball rise to number two in the country then I think they can go far.

Can they do it?  Which team is going to show up in the postseason?   What are your thoughts?

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As we now move into the postseason for Oregon State baseball I wanted to take some time looking back at what was an impressive and surprising season and one that ended on a very disappointing note.

We came in with some big questions about a team that looked on paper inexperienced and young overall.  There seemed to be a lot of potential, and I really felt that Coach Casey was projecting a good deal of confidence on his team this year.  But with some rough off and on seasons over the last three years it was difficult to gauge what this team would bring. Would it be a team that would perform better, about the same, or worse?  For almost 85% of the season they were impressive and a pleasure to watch, and what I would say was an improvement over the last few seasons.  That said, what did happen at the end when the team went 1 for 7 in its last games?  Did inexperience catch up with the team?  Did the underdog team chemistry go away when we got Susac and Rodriguez back from injuries?  What happened to the stellar pitching?

I personally was kind-of expecting some of the flashes of dynamic play we saw at times, but what I did not expect was the incredible balance and maturity this team brought to field for much of the season.  There were some off early games that showed the team's overall inexperience, such as the last UCSB game, the second mid-week UO one, and yes the Pac-10 opener loss to UA (I'm going to come back to that UA one in a bit).  At the same time the way different players stepped up when others were struggling or out of the line-up due to injuries was impressive.  At the end though we saw some extremely flat performances against UW, USC, and UO.  This all happened against three of the bottom half of the conference teams at a crucial time when the Beavs basically needed to win only one more of those final seven games to win the conference.

The non-conference part of the season was pretty solid, but also with playing teams like Hartford it seemed a bit difficult to truly gauge how good this team would be going into Pac-10 play.  There were solid wins over Gonzaga, Connecticut, and Indiana where the team seemed to show potential.  This all came crashing down though with that first loss to Arizona.  A loss that seemed surreal at the time with Sam Gaviglio on the mound, and looking back in many ways doesn't seem part of the overall season.  The turnaround though was pretty incredible, first it was coming back and taking that series against UA, next we had the highlights of sweeping Arizona State and Stanford, to finally the solid series win over UCLA with Josh Osich's amazing no-hitter . 

After an ok, but not overpowering, series win over the last place Huskies we then came the second to last conference series against a red-hot USC team.  In this series it seemed to be where the team really started to go flat, which then led to a completely lackluster and unfocused series loss to the UO.  It was indeed a surreal season overall in many ways.  The season went from a fairly unknown team showing such a high level of resolve and bounce back it became one of the better OSU sports stories of the last few years in my opinion, but then to squander all that hard work and effort in the end was heartbreaking.  Personally after all this team went through I guess it wasn't 100% surprising they would have a slump, but the timing of it was so bad I do have a hard time understanding how they could have loss the games to UW, USC, and UO in the manner they did.

That said I also really want to emphasize we can't lose focus ourselves, as fans, of how much this team has accomplished this season.  We were given some truly magical moments this season: The multiple come from behind victories (and from a good amount of runs behind) over UT-San Antonio, Long Beach State (game two), and UCLA (game one); Sam Gaviglio's almost near perfect game performance against Long Beach State in game one; Josh Osich's incredible no-hitter performance (first one since 1947 for an Oregon State pitcher) against UCLA in game two; and finally to Ryan Dunn's hitting for the cycle against Portland.

After the break I look at the preseason questions I posed back when, and to conclude here will add with how much this team has done this year I think it is still important to really support their postseason regional in Corvallis.  Yes the team is playing under its potential right now, and I'm not quite as "it is a new season" as others, but with what this team has shown earlier this season there is reason to believe they can bounce back and play some really good baseball (remember we never thought this team would make a run at the conference title after losing their first Pac-10 game 18 to 0!).  Go Beavs!

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If you are just getting back to OSU baseball for the weekend and you haven't been online checking on the score then you might not know about Josh Oshich's incredible no-hitter yesterday against UCLA, or you just might with this amazing feat the buzz of OSU baseball right now!

But indeed Josh Osich (now 6-1) pitched a complete no-hitter for the first time since 1947 in OSU baseball history and the first Pac-10 pitcher to do it in a conference game since 1994.  He gave up one walk only and the Beavs won it 2 to 0 with Kavin Keyes' two run double in the sixth.

For more on the story see the OSU piece: Josh Osich Throws Fourth No-Hitter In Oregon State Baseball History (be sure to check out the neat Hank Hager pic of Josh in front of the scoreboard on the main OSU baseball page), and here is the Register-Guard piece: Oregon State baseball: Josh Osich trumps Bruin ace with no-hitter in 2-0 Beaver win, and the Gazette-Times write-up: Osich no-hits UCLA and Beavers win baseball series, and finally here is a YouTube clip of the last at bat for UCLA:

And for some more chills, and hoping Beaver Sports Radio Network is ok with this for this VERY special event, I have an audio clip below of Mike Parker calling the last at bat for UCLA:  Josh Osich no-hitter last three batters

Congratulations Josh!

(Photo:  Josh Osich pitching, Oregon State versus VMI game two, May 13, 2011)

As the baseball team heads into Pac-10 play this upcoming weekend against the Arizona Wildcats I wanted to quickly look back on the season to date.

I have to admit I'm pretty pleased with the overall performance of the team in the non-conference games.  Really there was only one game that seemed not winnable and this was game three of the UC Santa Barbara series, which in reality the opening first two innings pitching performance by Nygren and Wetzler just put the team in too much a hole to bounce back.  Of course it wasn't the best overall performance, but the defense and offense weren't all that terrible in that game.  But the other games the Beavs lost so far have been all winnable occasions, indeed the first five losses were by only one run each game.  Losing to Seattle University was a bit of a downer and it is too bad they couldn't get one win out of the Fresno State games, but at the same time some really solid wins against Connecticut, Indiana, Oregon, Long Beach State, and UC Santa Barbara.

Sitting at a record of 18 and 6 and finally getting some top 25 ranking recognition has been pretty impressive I think for this younger team.

Where is this all headed though?  I'm not sure, but after the break let's take a look at some of the main points covered in my preseason preview and also some of the stats to date.

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Because of looming bad weather they are going to play both games today with the first game starting at 2:30 this afternoon.

From the OSU site: "Oregon State and Long Beach State continue their three-game series Saturday at Blair Field. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. PT and game two will start approximately 30 minutes after the completion of game one."  Also here is a recap of yesterday's game and Sam Gaviglio's awesome pitching performance.

Look for the games thread to be posted early afternoon here on BtD.

Go Beavs!

Batter up!  Time for 2011 Oregon State baseball!

OSU versus Tennessee, Game 3, February 28, 2010

Once again we find the sun is starting to show itself, albeit in a cold and rainy way, and we sense those spring "showers" oh so close.  That means that it is almost time for OSU baseball!  It is a time for fanoverboard to begin waxing poetically about peanut shells and those first base side seats, and for me to describe once again that freshly cut spring grass smell filling my memories of playing outfield oh so long ago!  It is a time to also put behind us a challenging 2010 campaign and move into what I see as a possible new era of talent and potential.

We'll be a different club, I don't think we'll be as one-dimensional as we were last year.  I thought we were pretty one-dimensional last year in a lot of situations. (Coach Casey, Season Opening Press Conference)

As part of getting ready here is my annual baseball preview, which I hope will instill some of my love of the game and excitement for the upcoming season on to Beaver Nation. 

My "preview"  thoughts are after the break, but here are some primer stories I thought were of interest and hope will help get everyone excited about the upcoming season:

• Baseball's Andrew Susac, Adam Duke Rated Highly By Baseball America - OSU Athletic site
  
• Baseball Single-Game Tickets On Sale Monday- OSU Athletic site
  
• Baseball Gets First 2011 Workout In - OSU Athletic site
  
• Season Opening Press Conference video - OSU Athletic site All Access
  

• Oregon State baseball team motivated by lack of respect - Gazette-Times

• Oregon State baseball: Pat Casey and his players preparing for Feb. 19 opener against Gonzaga - OregonLive
  

Did you know 10 Oregon State players on the 2011 roster have already been selected by MLB clubs but decided they wanted to become Beavers? That's true. They are: Carter Bell, Tony Bryant, Dan Child, Adam Duke, Sam Gaviglio, Garrett Nash (twice), Jordan Poyer, Jake Rodriguz, Susac and Ben Wetzler. Four of the 10 - Child, Duke, Rodriguez and Wetzler - had the opportunity this past summer to sign but elected to come to Corvallis. (2011 Baseball Preview: The Beavers (OSU Athletic site))

Matt Boyd pitching, OSU versus Maine, Game 4, March 21, 2010

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Wow feels like forever since we have had a basketball game.  One thing I have always liked about basketball and baseball over football is usually less wait!

Going into the first Civil War game I wanted to pose some questions and thoughts about the Beavs 2010-2011 basketball team.  I hope that we can use this a "preview" discussion area as we move into Saturday's game.

I really don't have a formal preview in place here and did throw around the idea for a poll, but thought it would be nice to have more of a discussion around the team who is nearing the half way point of conference play.  My questions/thoughts after the break.

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We are going to miss Jacquizz Rodgers and wish you all the best in the NFL Quizz!  Remember too that you are always one of Beaver Nation now!  Go Beavs!

(p.s. Sorry about the ads in the first couple.  Also anyone have others to share?)

RVM posting a story?  Can it be?

Ok, seriously I wanted to share some of my thoughts about the OSU non-conference basketball season before we moved into Pac-10 play and 2011.

But first I wanted to wish everyone out there in Beaver Nation, and other "Nations", a Happy Holidays and all the best for the New Year.  I especially wanted to extend my warm greetings and thank you to the crew here on BtD.  There have been some great moments and some not so great ones in OSU athletics this last year and it has been a pleasure sharing all of them with Jake, AndyPanda, ConnorOSU, and ArbyOSU.  I have enjoyed everyone's contributions and looking forward to more from BtD in 2011.  And also a big thank you to everyone who reads and comments on the site.  Go Beavs!

For my thoughts about the basketball season so far I wanted to include some general thoughts, a breakdown of what I see as possible keys to success in Pac-10 play, and then offer up the stats to date.

Let's begin with general thoughts.  Ah, hmm, actually not really sure what to say.  The team as a whole I think most of us agree is young and talented, and overall there has been the problem of not playing as a team and establishing true on-the-court leadership.  At the same time we have seen some glimpses of what I really do believe could be a very good team in the wins over Illinois-Chicago and Charlotte.  But on the flip side we have had some mind-boggling flat losses to teams a Pac-10 team has no reason to lose to.  Overall I have been about that we all have to be patient with this team and indeed with the losses against Montana and George Washington my own patience was tested.  That said I think the team ended on an excellent note by easily handling Illinois-Chicago and showing that indeed this talented group of players can play as a team.

My "keys to success: in 2011 and stats to date are after the break here.

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