Oregon St.'s men's basketball team will be taking a trip to Europe this August 18th thru 28th, and will play several games against teams in Spain, and possibly southern France. The game schedule for the European trip is still being worked out, but head coach Craig Robinson said the Beavers will be facing some very good teams.

NCAA rules allow teams to take a preseason international trip once every four year, and 10 additional practice days are allowed in advance to prepare. With 4 new players now, and 2 players who did not play last year, red-shirt freshman Daniel Gomis and transfer Mike Moyer, and the need to adjust to life after Jared Cunningham, who left early for the NBA, the extra practice and game experience couldn't come at a better time.

"As far as our European trip goes, we wanted to do it in a year when we have a lot of incoming players," Robinson said. "The timing works out perfectly. We have 6 guys who are going to get some game experience from this trip, first and foremost. Secondly, with this trip in preparing for these games, you get 10 days of practice. So that's going to be real helpful for this group of newcomers."

Although the Beavers have 4 returning starters, plus forward Joe Burton who has been a starter at times, as well as a couple of others who have spot started, the adjustments to playing without Cunningham and expanding the role of Eric Moreland will still require some time to work through.

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23rd ranked Oregon St. bounced back from a potent second at bat by Portland, and pulled away for a 12-4 win, as the Beavers battered Pilot pitching for a dozen hits, including triples by Kavin Keyes and Dylan Davis that delivered 5 of the runs on 2 swings.

Oregon St. opened a 2-0 lead in the first inning of their last mid-week non-conference game of the season when Max Gordon used a piece of evasive base running to avoid the tag and score on a passed ball, and Michael Conforto scored the first of his 4 runs on the night on Ryan Dunn's RBI single. But Beavers' starter Taylor Starr struggled, and it looked like it would be a long night for Oregon St. when Portland pushed 4 runs across in the 2nd inning.

Starr served up a 1 out walk, and then consecutive singles, followed by a 2 RBI double by Bo Cornish, and also uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the 4th run of the inning, as the Pilots pulled ahead 4-2.

The Beavers quickly erased the deficit with a 5 run second at bat though. With 2 out but 2 on, Portland pitcher Kody Watts intentionally walked Conforto, the conference's RBI leader and home run co-leader, part way thru the at bat. Which didn't directly hurt the Pilots, but the consecutive walks he then issued to Danny Hayes and Dunn did, erasing Portland's lead and ending Watts' abbreviated evening.

J.R. Bunda took over, but after getting ahead of Keyes in the count, Keyes came through with a 3 RBI triple to right, and Oregon St. never looked back.

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Portland (25-18, 12-9) at #23 Oregon State (32-17, 13-11) at 5:35 PM PDT at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field - KEJO 1240 AM & KPOJ 620 AM - Audio & Video Stream on Beaver Nation Online, for a fee

Gametracker

Its already time for the last mid-week game of the season for Oregon St., and tonight's outing is the third of the year against the Portland Pilots of the West Coast Conference.

The Beavers took 2 of 3 this last weekend at Utah, and have won 3 of their last 5 games, all decided by 1 run, and the last 2 in Salt Lake City in extra innings.

The Pilots, who are in the thick of the WCC race, took the last 2 of their 3 game series against St. Mary's, but are only 1-6 against the Pac-12, with another at Washington tomorrow, and 2 more games left against Oregon next week.

Both teams are still battling for a post season berth, as the Pilots are only 2 games behind San Diego in the WCC race, which any one of 5 teams could still win.

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The tweet from Oregon St. Coach Craig Robinson trickled in on the weekend while I (and a lot of people) were out of town, but its official, 3 star small forward Victor Robbins from Compton High in Compton, CA, is now a Beaver.

Robinson received Robbins' National Letter of Intent late last week, giving Oregon St. 4 signed recruits for this fall.

Robbins is 6'5", and weighs in at 195 lbs.

"He brings a combo of athleticism and (basketball) IQ," Robinson said, "that gives us versatility."

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Oregon St.'s game Saturday against Washington St., which was originally scheduled for an earlier afternoon start, has been rescheduled to 4:30 PM PDT, in order to have the game televised by ROOT Sports Northwest. It's the 4th Oregon St. Saturday Pac-12 game to be televised, with one more to come, in the season ending series against Oregon.

Go Beavers!

Oregon St. stayed at #23 in the BaseballAmerica.com top 25 poll this week, after going 2-2 last week. The Beavers lost to then #9, but now #6, Oregon, and then took 2 of 3 from Utah. All 4 games were decided by 1 run, and the last 2 contests went extra distance. All 4 were road games as well.

The Ducks were the biggest mover amongst the Pac-12 teams in the poll, climbing to their highest ranking ever after taking 2 games from USC on the heels of their win over the Beavers.

UCLA made no headway, staying at #11, despite beating Pepperdine and then sweeping Washington, all on the road. The Bruins continue on what will eventually be a 9 game series of road trips, with a big game a #8 Cal-St. Fullerton on Tuesday, and then 3 in a row at California.

While a mid-week game, the UCLA-Fullerton St. game could wind up being pivotal for possible Super-Regional sighting and seeding for both teams. The Titans took only 2 of 3 against UC-Santa Barbara (remember those are the guys Oregon St. took 3 of 4 from back on opening weekend?), but they were road games for Fullerton.

Its getting very interesting, as RPIs for everyone are being impacted by seemingly every game anyone plays these days.

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After a 34-21 campaign, including going 9-14 in the Pac-12 Conference, the toughest softball circuit in the country, the Oregon St. softball team is 1 of 8 Pac-12 teams headed for the NCAA tournament.

Actually, the Beavers are one of only two "headed" somewhere, along with Stanford, as the conference has 6 teams hosting regionals. Think about that if you need to know anything about how tough the Pac is, where a team that does not even finish in the top half of the conference gets to host a regional. It's why the conference has won 23 of the 30 CWS that have been contested.

The Beavers are headed for Norman, Oklahoma, and the Oklahoma regional, where they will face Tulsa (41-12) Friday at 5 PM CDT (3 PM PDT). The other half of the the regional has Oklahoma (45-8) hosting LeHigh (40-17). It's the first post-season appearance for Oregon St. in 5 years.

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