The Pac-10 season gets underway tomorrow, and now that the first 18 non-conference games have given us a better feel for the 2008 Oregon State Beavers Baseball team, here is a season preview. We'll start with the outfielders:
#4 Daniel Robertson, Sr.
The senior transfer has spent the majority of his time in right field. He's started 17 of OSU's 18 games, 14 of those starts coming in right field. He's played two in center and one in right. The former Concordia Eagle played three years for coach Tony Barbone, playing a big role in his lineup all three years. Daniel batted .329 as a freshman, .404 as a sophomore, and .415 as a junior. In his senior season at Oregon State, he's hitting .397 and is third on the team in batting average. Daniel is 25 for 63 with twenty runs, seven doubles, and eight RBI's. Just like Ryan Ortiz, Roberson is heating up as Pac-10 play approaches. Daniel is riding a four game hitting streak, in which he is batting .556 (10 for 18), has scored eight times and hit four doubles. In his last game versus BYU on Tuesday, Daniel was 4-for-6 with three runs and a double. Daniel primarily hits in the fourth spot, but occasionally bats fifth. He also has good speed on the base paths, as he leads the team with six stolen bases in seven attempts.
#22 Koa Kahalehoe, Jr.
Koa started 21 of Oregon State's 67 games last season and hit .244. So far this season, he's started one game in center field and two in left, and has a .083 batting average. Kahalehoe is 1-for-12 at the plate this season with one run scored. However, he's only struck out once, which means he's putting the ball in play. Hopefully he gets some more chances to play as the season progresses.
#17 Will Campbell, Jr.
Will has started one game in left field, but has played sporadically in 5 games. He's 0-for-3 at the plate, but has scored two runs thanks to two walks.
#13 Rob Folsom, So.
Rob has started one game at designated hitter, but has played sporadically in eight games. He's 1-for-9 with one run scored, for a .111 average.
#40 Michael Miller, Fr.
Michael is 0-2 in his two at bats this season.
#20 Chris Hopkins, Sr.
Chris hit .266 his junior season after transferring to Oregon State from Sierra Junior College, primarily hitting leadoff. He's played in all eighteen games this season, but has started fourteen. He's hitting .309 in 55 at-bats with 17 hits. Those numbers may sound good, but we can assume that the OSU coaches want their leadoff man to perform better. Coach Casey has been moving him around the lineup a bit, as Chris has started seven games at the leadoff spot, three games in the two-hole, and four games in the nine-hole. Even though he's had a rough start, Chris will take a six game hitting streak into the Pac-10 opener against Washington. Hopkins is 8-for-25 during the hit streak, with 7 runs and 2 home runs. Chris has had six one hit games, four two hit games, and one three hit game. We know from last year that Chris has speed on the base paths, but he's only stolen one base this season.
#35 John Wallace, Jr.
John, who has played large roles in each of Oregon State's two National Championships, hit .282 his sophomore year. John has played in 14 of Oregon State's 18 games, due in part to sitting the Pepperdine series out due to some diciplinary issues. He's started eight of those games in left field, and one in right field. So far this season, John is batting .333, is 13-for-39 with 11 runs scored. He also has a double, a triple, and two home runs to round out his stat line.
#6 Garrett Nash, Fr.
Garrett has been playing somewhat of a utility role for the Beavers in his first year of Corvallis. The Draper, Utah native could have gone pro (he was selected in the fourth round of the MLB draft by the Texas Rangers) but chose to play college ball at Oregon State instead. Garrett is a natural infielder, but his athletic ability has allowed the OSU coaches to play Garrett in the outfield for the majority of his playing time. Nash has started six games in left field, one in right, four at third base, and one as designated hitter. On Monday in his first game against BYU, Garrett hit a game-opening triple and finished with two hits and four runs scored. So far, Garret is hitting 16-for-50 for a .320 average. He's scored 13 runs and has six doubles, a triple, and eight RBI's.
#9 Braden Wells, Sr.
Braden, who hit .277 in his junior season at Oregon State, has been struggling offensively so far this season. He's 2-for-11 for a .182 average, and has started in three games. Wells often contributes as a pinch runner or pinch hitter late in games, and has good speed on the base paths.
#34 Logan Boyd, Jr.
Logan has started one game at designated hitter, but has played sporadically in ten games. He's 2-for-9 at the plate for a .222 average.
That rounds out the outfielders on Oregon State's active roster. Stay tuned for the next installment of season previews, which will be the OSU infielders.
GO BEAVERS!
--JB--