After yet another sweep over the weekend, along with setting a new Pac-12 record for conference wins with 27 on the year, the consensus number one team in the country welcomes a Wildcat team that has struggled all year. Even if the Beavers take just one game this weekend, it will still set the program record for regular season wins with 46.

How To Watch:

No TV for this series, but there will be a live stream available through OSU and the Pac-12 here.

How To Listen:

The game will air live on the Beaver Sports Network, TuneIn (search Beaver Sports Network) and OSUBeavers.com. To find a station carrying the games in your area, check here.

The Beavers:

OSU enters its ninth consecutive week as the consensus number one team in the NCAA. The 45-4 Beavers have blown us away this year with the ridiculous amount of success they’ve had, particularly with their pitching. BTD took a look at all of the scope of their success when compared to national, league, and program history a few days back.

Projected Friday (or Saturday ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) starter Jake Thompson earned his second Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week award over the weekend after throwing his first career complete game against Washington State. He’s the only pitcher in the country to win 12 games this year and boasts the third best ERA in D1 with 1.01.

In other good news this week, infielder Cadyn Grenier received an invite to the 2017 USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp this summer. Nick Madrigal also got an invite earlier in the year.

The Wildcats:

ACU comes into Corvallis with a 13-39 overall record and a five game losing streak. Most recently, they were swept in a three game series with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on the road. Any momentum that the Wildcats may have picked up at the beginning of their season with sweeps of North Dakota State and eventual Big East champ Creighton seems to be gone at this point. They’ve won just three games within their league (Southland Conference) and one game on the road in 2017.

Despite their record, ACU landed three players on the Southland’s all-conference team this year. Those included outfielder Russell Crippen (arguably their best player), DH Luis Trevino and outfielder/pitcher Derek Scott. Oddly enough, Crippen (3.75 batting average, 41 RBIs) faces a fellow Snohomish high school product in OSU relief pitcher Jake Mulholland. That’s assuming the Beavers need Muholland at all this week.

The Schedule:

(Game times and projected starting pitchers are subject to change)

Thursday May 25th - 5:35 PM PT

LHP Austin Lambright (0-3, 5.54 ERA) vs Luke Heimlich (9-1, 0.87 ERA)

Friday May 26th - 5:35 PM PT

RHP Drew Hanson (3-5, 6.10 ERA) vs Jake Thompson (12-0, 1.01 ERA)

Saturday May 27th - 1:35 PM PT

LHP Derek Scott (2-3, 4.08 ERA) vs Drew Rasmussen (2-0, 0.77 ERA)

Sunday May 28th - 12:05 PM PT

RHP Keaton Brewer (1-4, 9.15 ERA) vs Jordan Britton (1-0, 2.40 ERA)

Conclusion

OSU has an obvious edge over this ACU team. That being said, it’s a four game series and the Beavers can risk playing with their lineup a bit. Plus, as disappointing a year that ACU has had, they’ve only been shutout once (vs TCU) so they can get some offense going when they need to.