If you haven't read the ESPN article on Mitch Canham, it's well worth checking out.

After Canham was drafted I was able to watch him a few times while with the Eugene Em's. He was a pleasure to watch with the Beavs, with the Em's, and I cannot wait to see this kid playing in the Show!!

I've made a link to it here.

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The "Teams" list doesn't seem to offer NCAA Men's Baseball, so I used the D1 Football drop-down to add the Beavs under "Teams".

It is that time of year again and this year EA has implemented stadium sounds into their yearly release of NCAA 09. Why is this important you might ask well it adds to the authenticity of the game and will add more realism to those hardcore dynasty users such as myself to be more immersed into the game. So I am asking all my fellow Beaver fans please help me compile a list of Stadium sounds that the Beavers use for the following situations:

• Successful Field Goal
• Successful PAT
• Successful 2 pt Conversion
• TD
• Safety
• Defense on 3rd down
• Defense on 4th down
• Kickoff
• Timeout called by home team
• Timeout called by away team
• Tackle for loss or sack
• Defensive stop on 3rd down
• Defensive stop on 4th down
• Turnover
• Defense takes the field after a kick return
• 3rd down conversion successful
• 4th down conversion successful
• 1st down conversion on 1st or 2nd down
• FG missed by opponent
• Booth review
• Start of the 4th quarter
• Penalty on Away team

In The Rivalry's Pac 10 preview, the Beavers are rated 8th in the conference. This prediction praises Mike Riley for his winning seasons, but worries that the Beavers lost so many starters (Alex Cerna, Yancy) from 2007 that they will struggle to rebound. The key matchup for the Beavers in 2008 is listed as UCLA, but key games at Hawaii and Penn State will challenge the Beavers also. Check the Pac 10 preview at:

http://therivalryesq.blogspot.com/

This excellent post comes from our friends at Rock Talk Chalk, SBN's Kansas Jayhawks blog. Wish I would have thought of this myself. --jake

Baylor receives #1 seed in the first annual college baseball NIT tournament.

A few weeks ago me and a few other college baseball fans over at the College Baseball Dugout forum were lamenting the fact that there was no baseball equivalent to the basketball NIT tournament. So, we decided to take matters into our own hands….

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
After an intense round of analysis and debate the first super-official college baseball NIT selection committee announced half of the field last night. Baylor received top honors. The Bears (32-26), who finished sixth in the Big-12 and missed out on the NCAA tournament, will continue their season this weekend as the top regional host in the NIT tournament. The College of Charlestown (39-20) and Missouri State (40-17) presented solid alternatives but in the end Baylor’s state of the art home field and demanding schedule carried the day.

The five other regional hosts include: Clemson (31-27), Oregon State (28-24), Washington State (30-26), Florida Gulf Coast (38-15) and Texas – San Antonio (39-19). Charlestown, Florida Gulf Coast and UTSA earned automatic bids to the tournament after winning their conferences during regular season play, the other five teams all impressed the committee enough to earn at-large invitations. Perhaps the most intriguing entry into this year’s tournament is Oregon State. The Beavers won back to back NCAA College World Series in 2006 and 2007. They will try to make it three national championships in a row, this time following the NIT pathway.

The committee also announced the eight #2 seeds.
Waco Regional
1) Baylor (32-26) at large, Big-12
2) New Mexico (34-25) at large, Mountain West

Charleston Regional
1) Charlestown (39-20) Southern Conference champions
2) Duke (37-18) at large, ACC

Springfield Regional
1. Missouri State (40-17) at large, Missouri Valley
2. Cincinnati (39-20) at large, Big East

Clemson Regional
1) Clemson (31-27) at large, ACC
2) Canisius (41-13) Metro Atlantic Champions

Corvallis Regional
1) Oregon State (28-24) at large, Pac-10
2) UC – Santa Barbara (35-21) at large, WCC

Pullman Regional
1) Washington State (30-26) at large, Pac-10
2) Santa Clara (32-22) at large, WCC

Fort Myers Regional
1) Florida Gulf Coast (38-15) Atlantic Sun Champions
2) South Florida (31-27) at large, Big East

San Antonio Regional
1) Texas San-Antonio (39-19) Southland Conference Champions
2) Louisiana Monroe (34-24) Sunbelt Conference Champions

The remaining invitations will be announced this evening. All regular season conference champions who are not selected to participate in the NCAA tournament are guaranteed an invitation to the NIT tournament. Binghamton (29-27) AEC; Xavier (27-31) A-10; Kent State (36-21) MAC; Monmouth (37-16) NEC; Jacksonville State (37-21) OVC; Army (25-25) Patriot and Jackson State (37-22) Southwestern will take seven invitations leaving only nine at-large invitations not already extended.

Several teams still on the bubble will certainly be gathering this evening hoping to see their names called. Tension is already very high in the Central Florida (31-27, C-USA) clubhouse. San Diego State head coach Tony Gwynn tried to take some edge off the wait by throwing his team a pig roast in his back yard. "We are just going to kick back, have a little food, and hope it all turns out well at the end of the night," the major league Hall of Famer said. "We did all we could this year (31-28, MWC). Now it is up to the wisdom of the selection committee. Far be it from me to second guess their deliberations."

Notre Dame (33-21, Big East), Creighton (37-21, MVC), West Virginia (35-21, Big East) and Purdue (32-26, Big-10) all plan to stage full practices today. The only note of discord recorded came from Air Raid TT 33. "Texas San-Antonio isn’t very good to be honest." Within minutes this quote was painted in huge red letters across the Road Runners club house. "Smack like that only motivates the team," said head coach Sherman Corbett. "I don’t know who this Air Raid TT 33 guy is, but he would best steer clear of this clubhouse for the next few days."

Disclaimer - This stuff is all made up. Tony Gwynn wouldn’t really take my call, and Sherman Corbett has no idea who I am. But AirraidTT33 really did write that smack, so that part is true. Anyway, follow the tournament. It will be fun. Visit the College Baseball Dugout to join the debate.

This post was copied over from Rock Chalk Talk , one of two offical sponsers of this fake tournament!

The No. 14 ranked men's team placed fourth.... 

 

"It was a bit of a tough day for us," head coach Steve Todd said.  "We did not quite race at the level we have been practicing and I think that that was disappointing for our team." 

The Beavers will now wait for an invitation to the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championships that will be held June 5-7 at Cherry Hill, N.J. Log on to OSUBeavers.com for up-to-date news on Oregon State men’s crew.

 

And the No. 14 ranked women's team placed fifth...

 

"Overall, today was a good day for our team," head coach Emily Ford said. "I think these races were a big step forward for this program."

The Oregon State women’s crew now awaits the possibility of an invitation to the NCAA rowing championships, which will also be held at Rancho Cordova, Calif. Log on to OSUBeavers.com for the latest information on Oregon State women's rowing.

 

Ben from Blazer's Edge sat down with Coach Robinson for an interesting interview. Check it out:

Link

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Space Filler

I kid you not, people.

The USA Today ran the following article today regarding Pat Casey and his success at Oregon State:

Click here for the full article. 

A few parts:

When Pat Casey took Oregon State to the College World Series in 2005 for the first time in 53 years, athletics director Bob De Carolis doubled the coach's salary. When the Beavers won their first baseball national championship in 2006, De Carolis doubled Casey's salary again.

When Oregon State made it back-to-back titles in 2007, De Carolis was in a pickle.

"We were tapped out at that point in terms of another major raise," De Carolis says. "So I gave Pat my office."

De Carolis says this from his cubicle in a trailer that sits by the railroad tracks adjacent to Gill Coliseum, home to the school's basketball arena and athletic offices. Casey now occupies what once was the AD's corner suite while De Carolis works out of the trailer as he awaits the renovation of his new space in Gill.

"This might seem a little out of the ordinary, but it reflects how highly I value Pat Casey and what he means to our school," De Carolis says. "If baseball in a northern climate can win a national championship, shouldn't the rest of us at least be in a position to be competitive in our own conference?"

 

The Beavers have future home-and-home series with perennial top-25 programs at Georgia, Tennessee, Long Beach State and Pepperdine.

Oregon State is at the front of a group of rising programs that are breaking into the tight circle of traditional college baseball powers. Louisville and California-Irvine reached Omaha for the first time last year, and that number could grow this June.

Vanderbilt, San Diego and Coastal Carolina are top-20 teams in position to crack the final eight for the first time. Missouri has a chance to return to Omaha for the first time in 44 years.

"College baseball is in as strong a state as I've ever seen it," Casey says. "Every team in the country feels it can win. There are a lot of people who feel (reaching the CWS) isn't an exclusive club anymore."

Since I wasn't in much of a mood for posting a recap after yesterday's game one loss to Utah Valley (who would want to read that?), here's a link to one for those who are interested. It's from Cliff K. of the Gazette Times.

Hangovers are hard to cure, even when you know it’s coming.

The Oregon State baseball team came off a dramatic victory over UCLA on Sunday to claim a crucial Pacific-10 Conference series, and then went through Monday with a headache that grew as the night went on.

Utah Valley took advantage of OSU’s sluggish play to claim an 11-6 nonconference upset before a crowd of 1,264 in Goss Stadium.

“I’m not stunned at all,” coach Pat Casey said. “We got our butt kicked in every aspect of the game. We shouldn’t this late in the year. We played like we had a hangover from a lot of things. We shouldn’t come out flat at all.”

I should have posted this a long time ago (it came out before the draft), but ESPN's Page 2 writer Mary Buckheit did a story with former OSU kicker Alexis Serna on the draft, his college career, and other things. It might be a little but irrelevant now, but it's still an interesting article and video.

Check it out for yourself.

GO BEAVERS!

--JB--

Just need seven more words to make this post qualify as a FanPost...

Barack Obama is looking like he will get the democratic nomination, and he's made several appearances recently in Oregon. He brought the Ducks and the Beavers toghether at a rally on Friday in which both Craig Robinson and Ernie Kent were present. From Obama:

“I just want to point out that this campaign has been about unity from the start and today we had the new coach of the Oregon State University Beavers introduce me. Well he happens to be my brother- in-law so you better not boo and the coach of Oregon University that’s a sign of being able to bring anybody together in this country — the Ducks and the Beavers.”

Full story.

Go Beavs.