No. 2 Oregon State (8-0) vs West Virginia (4-3)

March 1- 5:35 p.m. ... March 2 - 1:35 p.m ... March 3 - 1:05 p.m.

Goss Stadium at Coleman Field

TV: Oregon State live stream (Link here)

Radio: Beaver Sports Radio Network

---

Opposing Pitcher to watch

#47 Alek Manoah: 6-foot-6, 260 Jr. RHP: 1-0, 0.73 ERA, 21 K, 2 BB

Opposing Hitter to watch

#32 Ivan Gonzalez: 5-foot-9, 190 SR C/3B: .296 avg, .481 SLG, 8 H, 7 RBI

1. Play like the superior team: After racking up eight straight wins to start the season, the Beavers have lived up to the preseason expectations of being one of the top teams in the country. With West Virginia on tap in the Beavers first series in Goss Stadium this season, the Beavers will be looking to continue their dominant play.

After opening the season with a 6-5 too close for comfort win over New Mexico, the Beavers have been on a roll, outscoring opponents 65-13. Simply put, the Beavers need to continue that dominance against a lesser tier power-five opponent that isn’t on their level in terms of talent and experience.

Make no mistake, the Mountaineers are a power-five team, but they have losses to Kennesaw State and Georgia Southern in the first two weeks. All in all, if the Beavers play like they have in the first eight games of the season, they’ll sweep the weekend.

2. Get strong starting and bullpen pitching: With West Virginia not being a strong team offensively (.198 team avg, .279 SLG), this should be a good weekend for the Oregon State pitching staff. After mowing down Nebraska last week, the versatile group returns to Corvallis for the first time since its 2018 National Championship. With a tentative sunny forecast projected Friday to Sunday, it’s safe to assume the Beavers will have the Goss packed.

The Beavers’ pitchers have started the season hot, boasting a team ERA of 2.25 and a 70-21 K/BB ratio. With Kevin Abel and Bryce Fehmel set to lock down the Friday and Saturday spots, it will be interesting to see who gets the nod on Sunday. It will likely be Sam Tweedt or Grant Gambrell, but either way, the starters need to pave the way and assert their dominance on a weak offensive team. The ‘pen will be ready in relief as they have multiple options as all but three pitchers have logged more than one appearance this season. Given the opponent, the Beaver arms should have their way with WV this weekend.

3. Continue offensive-balance: With a team average of .311, the Beavers have settled into a nice offensive groove to start the 2019 season. Heading into the year, there were some question marks surrounding the OSU offense.

Despite returning Adley Rutschman and Tyler Malone to anchor the offensive lineup, the offensive roles of Nick Madrigal, Cadyn Grenier, Trevor Larnach, and others were going to need to be filled. It’s only been eight games, but so far the Beavers are showing they have more than enough talent to fill the shoes.

Between Alex McGarry (.577, 12 RBI), Kyler McMahan (.409), Tyler Malone (.278) and Beau Phillip (.281, 10 RBI) in addition to Rutschman (.400, 10 hits, 11 RBI), the Beavers have been able to overcome the slow starts to the season by Andy Armstrong (.174) and Zak Taylor (.143).

Given that both Armstrong and Taylor came up big for the Beavers in Omaha a season ago, their numbers will certainly go up in the coming games. With the lineup card tightening as the Beavers go to their first three-game series of the season, it will be key for the Beavers to continue to get top-to-bottom production from their lineup to be most effective.