Well, it took until Monday night, but the Oregon State Baseball team finally has an opponent for the Super Regionals. Now that the Vanderbilt Commodores are coming to Corvallis, let’s look at the five reasons why the Beavers will dispatch of Vandy and move on to the CWS.
OSU advances to Super Regionals
Oregon State a leader for Florida running back
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1. OSU has the best starting pitching staff in the country
This isn’t an exaggeration folks. Luke Heimlich, Jake Thompson and Drew Rasmussen form the best 1-2-3 punch in college baseball. There may be room for some debate because of the lackluster performance from Rasmussen against Yale, but let us not forget that he threw the only perfect game in OSU’s history as a freshman two years ago.
Luke Heimlich is the best college pitcher Yale coach John Stupar has ever seen play before his eyes, and Jake Thompson leads the nation with 13 wins. All three guys have an ERA less than 1.30 and all three of them will most likely be take in the first few rounds of the MLB draft next week. Make no mistake, OSU’s starting pitching is perhaps the best it’s ever been in history, and the Beavers will ride the success of those three guys all the way to Omaha.
2. Pat Casey isn’t satisfied
After OSU clinched a berth in the Super Regionals Sunday night, you figured Pat Casey would be pleased with his team’s performance. Not a chance. One of the first things that Casey said in his press conference is that his team absolutely has to be better next weekend with a real ballclub in Vanderbilt coming to Corvallis next weekend. He said the Beavers were “flat” in the middle innings on Sunday, and if OSU did that next weekend they could be in trouble. I’m not quite sure that is 100 percent accurate and I think Casey is very hard to impress. However, that lack of satisfaction is what is driving this team this year. Casey’s expectations for this group are sky high, and with the leadership on this team, I don’t see the Beavers letting him down short of their ultimate goal of Omaha.
3. OSU’s batting is the best it’s been all season
Coming into the season, the Beavers had established hitters in KJ Harrison and Nick Madrigal but the rest of the hitting lineup was very much in question. In the beginning of the year, OSU went through some offensive growing pains, but now they are reaping the rewards. Guys like Jack Anderson, Elliott Cary, Steven Kwan, Trevor Larnach and Michael Gretler are playing the best baseball of their careers.
Very few people including myself pegged Jack Anderson and Steven Kwan to be the big time players that they have become this season. Michael Gretler is quietly becoming one of OSU’s most complete two way players. Perhaps most impressive of the group is the emergence of Adley Rutschman. Coming into the year, I knew his potential at catcher was immense, but I figured he would take at least a year to become a big time hitter. I was wrong. There have been numerous occasions where Rutschman’s hitting has won OSU games. I don’t think anyone expected that from him 3-4 months ago.
Six of OSU’s nine starting hitters are batting over .300 and when you combine that with OSU’s ridiculous amount of pitching talent, it’s no wonder they are the No. 1 team in the country.
4. Vanderbilt isn’t as complete a team as OSU
No disrespect to Vanderbilt, who consistently fields one of the best teams in the country year in and year out, but this year’s Vandy team isn’t nearly as good as OSU. Vanderbilt won the national title in 2014, and had recently had the No. 1 overall pick in the 2015 MLB draft in Dansby Swanson. However, by the Commodores' standards, this has been a bit of a down year for them as they finished 35-23-1 (15-13-1 SEC). However, one of the more interesting things to keep an eye on for Vanderbilt is RHP Kyle Wright. Wright is projected by many mock drafts to be the Minnesota Twins No. 1 overall selection next week.
While Vandy is a really solid SEC team, they don’t have the horses to compete with the No. 1 team in country who lost just four games all season. When Vanderbilt played tough competition this season, (Florida, Louisville, Arkansas, and Kentucky) they lost. Their strength of schedule is highly inflated from playing in the SEC this season, and I think they weren’t able to beat the really good teams. However, they did beat host Clemson to advance to the Super Regionals and at this point every team is really good.
Vanderbilt will offer a much stiffer challenge to the Beavers than Yale or Holy Cross did, but if the Beavers get the pitching they are accustomed to, Vanderbilt won’t be able to win two games at Goss Stadium.
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5. Goss Stadium is one of of the best home field advantages in the country
I don’t think very many teams like coming to play the Beavers in Goss Stadium this season. The USC Trojans can hold their heads up high as the only team in the country that beat OSU on their home turf. And even that game was won by the Trojans in 10 innings.
The Corvallis Regional featured teams from the eastern seaboard (Yale and Holy Cross) and the Midwest (Nebraska). Those teams had to travel very far west to play the Beavers and when you couple that with one of the loudest crowds in college baseball, it makes Goss Stadium very hard to win in. With Vanderbilt coming to town next week, the Commodores will have to travel 2,370 miles to reach Corvallis. The essence of home field advantage is so under appreciated in college baseball in my opinion, and I think it makes a big impact on which team goes to Omaha and which one goes home.
Take 2011 for example. The Beavers were a really good team that finished third in the then Pac-10 and won over 40 games but had to travel very far east to Vanderbilt to play the Commodores who were the No. 6 national seed. Vandy swept the Beavers in two games winning 11-1 and 9-3 respectively. I’m not saying that traveling had anything to do with OSU’s result, but it definitely had to have an impact on their day-to-day routine.
Bottom line, when a team has the ability to play the regionals and super regionals on their home turf with their rowdy crowd behind them, and are as talented as OSU is in 2017, they won’t lose often. Goss Stadium will see two more OSU wins this season as the Beavers will ride their crowd to Omaha.
**Make sure to check out our full OSU-Vandy preview later in the week**
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