Postseason lies ahead for Beavers: ‘This is what we have been waiting for’

Sophomore left-hander Ethan Kleinschmit will be among the starting rotation for the Beavers in the postseason (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)

CORVALLIS — Now the second season begins. The real season.

From the time they reported for early fall drills in September, Oregon State’s coaches and players have pointed to a singular goal for the 2025 season:

Get to Omaha and win it all.

The Beavers have put themselves in position to make a run at the College World Series, at least. The regular season is in the books, and with one glaring major flub-up, they have put together an Omaha-worthy campaign.

Oregon State, ranked between seventh and 11th in the national polls and a solid No. 6 in national RPI figures, ended its season Saturday with a 13-0, seven-inning shellacking of Long Beach State, completing a three-game sweep of the Dirtbags at Goss Stadium. The Beavers finished with a 41-12-1 record as the lone independent among Division I baseball’s 307 teams (Washington State participated in the Mountain West).

Now the Beavers will get some down time before the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, May 26 on ESPN2. While all of the major conferences are staging post-season tournaments next weekend, Oregon State will be idle.

The Beavers are a lock to be one of 16 teams hosting four-team Regionals in the 64-team bracket, which run May 30 to June 2. The question is whether the NCAA Tournament selection committee will tab them as one of the top eight teams, which would guarantee them the chance to host a Super Regional should they win the Regional.

This past week, national college baseball periodicals D1Baseball and Baseball America predicted Oregon State will not be a top eight seed. Coach Mitch Canham begs to differ.

Head coach Mitch Canham hopes Oregon State has put together a season that the NCAA Tournament selection committee will deem worthy of a top-eight seed (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)

“I anticipate we will be hosting Regionals and Super Regionals,” Canham told the media after Saturday’s regular-season finale. “These guys have earned every bit of it.”

Oregon State seems locked in at No. 6 on the RPI ladder. The Beavers trail No. 5 Arkansas by 69 points but have a 56-point lead over No. 7 North Carolina. OSU’s regular season is over so its numbers won’t change. Arkansas and North Carolina still have conference tournaments to play, but it is unlikely the Razorbacks will fall enough or the Tar Heels climb enough to change things.

Through the regular season, the Beavers mostly held up well despite their status as independents due to the breakup of the Pac-12. They played a challenging schedule that included only 19 home games, 20 road games and 15 “neutral site” games, including three against Iowa in Des Moines that were de facto road contests. According to broadcaster Rich Burk, the Beavers traveled nearly 24,000 miles, no doubt earning the players MVP Elite status on Alaska Airlines.

There were plenty of quality wins, including 7-2 over then-No. 2 Virginia, single-game decisions over Indiana, Baylor and Washington and series wins over Cal Poly, Cal Irvine, Hawaii, Cal Fullerton and Iowa.

The Beavers lost to No. 2 Auburn 8-7 at Arlington, Texas, on March 1, but the low point of the season came in late April, when rival Oregon swept a four-game Civil War series — three games in Eugene, one in Corvallis. Had the Beavers even split the series, they would almost surely be looking at a top-eight seed.

Oregon, as it turns out, will be a competitor for a national seed. The Ducks (41-13) are ranked 12th in RPI and between Nos. 3 and 9 in the polls.

NEW: The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.

Strength of schedule favors neither school. According to Warren Nolan RPI, Oregon ranks No. 35 and Oregon State No. 40.

The selection committee divides teams into four quadrants by strength of program. To wit:

Quad 1: Home games vs top 30; neutral games vs. top 50; away games vs. top 60.

Quad 2: Home games vs. 31-75; neutral games vs. 51-100; away games vs. 61-120.

Quads 3 and 4 are opponents behind those numbers.

Oregon State’s record: First quad 10-9, second quad 10-2-1, third quad 7-1, fourth quad 14-0.

Oregon’s record: First quad 9-1, second quad 3-0, third quad 22-9, fourth quad 7-3.

So the Beavers went 20-11-1 against top-quality opponents and 21-1 against lower-quality foes. Oregon was 12-1 in the former category and 29-12 in the latter.

Interestingly, University of Portland athletic director Scott Leykam is a member of the selection committee. Oregon State beat UP twice this season; the Pilots won both of their matchups with the Ducks.

SEC schools are sure to dominate the top 16 seeds. The first five, and seven of the first 10 RPI teams are from the SEC. It is likely that nine SEC teams will be hosting a Regional.

Regardless of their seed, the Beavers will enter the NCAA Tournament with confidence after going 8-1-1 down the stretch of the regular season.

“This is what we have been waiting for,” said Oregon State’s hottest hitter, junior centerfielder Canon Reeder. “Bring it on.”

Junior outfielder Canon Reeder has come on to be the Beavers’ hottest hitter entering the postseason (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)

Reeder, a 6-foot, 190-pound junior from Bend’s Summit High who wasn’t even a starter to begin the season, ended it on a seven-game hitting streak. He pounded three home runs in the last two games and went 11 for 26 with 12 RBIs, six runs and five walks over the final seven outings. In Saturday’s finale, Reeder, who enters the postseason with a .316 batting average, had three hits, two homers and seven RBIs.

As a team this season, Oregon State has batted .287 with a .408 on-base percentage, averaging 9.6 hits, 7.3 runs and 6.1 walks per game. The Beavers have slugged 87 home runs in the 54 games compared to 52 for the opposition.

Five regulars have hit better than .300 — shortstop Aiva Arquette (.348), left-fielder Gavin Turley (.338), catcher Wilson Weber (.332), second baseman AJ Singer (.319) and Reeder. All five have an on-base percentage of better than .400. Arquette has clouted 17 round-trippers, Turley 15 and Weber 10; Arquette has 60 RBIs, Turley 57 and Weber 49.

But some of the regulars struggled at the plate through the second half of the season. First baseman Jacob Krieg, who has 12 homers but whose average dropped 40 points to .234 with 69 strikeouts in 200 plate appearances, has lost his job to Tyce Peterson. Right-fielder Easton Talt went through an 0-for-35 tailspin in which his average plummeted more than 70 points. Talt snapped the skid with a double in Friday’s 12-8 win over Long Beach State, then went 2 for 5 with a homer and three RBIs on Saturday. And though his batting average is at .273, he still leads the team with 60 walks and a .468 on-base percentage.

Third baseman Trent Caraway has had a disappointing season both at the plate (.255) and in the field, where he has a team-high 11 errors. Caraway seemed to come out of it the last two games, going 4 for 8 with a homer, three runs and five RBIs.

And outfielder Dallas Macias, who hit .315 with eight homers and 41 RBIs for the 2024 Beavers, has been mired in a season-long slump. Macias is batting .152 in 33 games and 113 plate appearances. Canham may choose to use redshirt freshman Carson McEntire over Macias as DH in the postseason.

Starting pitching is in great shape, if results from the Long Beach State series are an indication.

Eric Segura, Dax Whitney and Ethan Kleinschmit each gave up only one hit to the Dirtbags. Segura went 5 2/3 innings and yielded one run. Whitney (5 1/3 innings) and Kleinschmit (6 innings) allowed no runs. Segura (8-1 with a 4.24 ERA) has taken over for Nelson Keljo as a Game-1 starter. Freshman star Whitney (5-3, 3.86) and Kleinschmit (7-3, 3.84) have been trustworthy, if only for five to six innings a start.

The relief crew is another issue. Keljo and AJ Hutcheson — who will be counted upon in the postseason — had shaky outings on Friday. Laif Palmer, a 6-6 sophomore right-hander, has been the best arm out of the bullpen (2-0 with a 1.35 ERA in 14 appearances and 26 2/3 innings). Sophomore right-hander Wyatt Queen (3-1, 3.38), junior right-hander Kellan Oaks (2-0, 4.20) and freshman right-hander Zach Kmatz (1-0, 4.50) are the others pitching coach Rich Dorman will go to with confidence out of the ‘pen.

Defensively, the Beavers are outstanding up the middle with Weber at catcher, Arquette and Singer as the keystone combination and Reeder in center.

“It’s all coming together,” Reeder said. “The pitching staff is doing its job and the hitters are starting to rake. It’s a good combination.”

I asked Reeder how the Beavers stand as a potential contender to win a national title.

“I think we are made for it, really,” he said. “We have been on the road a lot, which builds character. We have played in front of large crowds all season. Hopefully now we get to be here at Goss for a few more weeks and put a show on for the fans.”

The Beavers will be the only team in a Regional coming off a bye weekend. It should be a positive for the players, who are likely a bit weary from what has been a long season. The pitching staff will come into the postseason fresh. The position players can use a break, too.

“It will be beneficial,” Reeder told me. “(Press the) re-set button, rejuvenate the bodies and the minds, and then go head-on into the postseason and take it over.”

Canham recalls the years playing in the Pac-12 Tournament in the sweltering Arizona heat the week before a Regional.

“It can be a lot, especially when you are going deep in the tournament and playing multiple games,” he said. “We haven’t (had a bye week) before, but this might be a very valuable thing.

“We finally get to practice more, take care of our bodies. Next week, we will be able to get in the weight room three times. We will get back on a good eating and sleeping schedule. I suspect we will start trending in the right direction.”

To keep from getting stale, Canham has scheduled intrasquad scrimmages at Goss next weekend. They will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday and are open to the public.

“We will play just a few innings on each of those days, to keep the starters on their routine, to get some at-bats,” Canham said. “It is not a scoreboard game. It is going to be controlled, and we will make sure the pitchers have a (pitch) limit each inning. We will put guys on base, put them in scoring positions and in different situations that the pitchers can work on and the defense can work on as well.”

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