Quick Links: Oregon State Draws Vanderbilt In Super Regional

• On Monday night, Vanderbilt knocked off Clemson in their regional to force a Super Regional series with Oregon State. While during the Corvallis Regional, we were absolutely blessed by the humorous quips of Yale head coach John Stuper, the Beavers will now move onto Vanderbilt’s Tim Corbin as their opposite bench foe, who brings a bit more of an subtle and quiet approach. However, to get a deeper gauge on the Commodores program director, check out this piece by The Tennessean about the coach’s long path to the top and a lot of the adversity he faced along the way, both on-and-off the field.

• Twitter was abuzz after Vanderbilt clinched the Clemson regional, with reporters from all over the country chiming in about the gripping potential of the Beavers-Commodores series.

David Caraviello of The Post and Courier tweeted out that he’s excited to watch “the country’s best pitcher” in Vanderbilt’s Kyle Wright against Oregon State.

Eric Single of Sports Illustrated Now brought up a moment from the last time Vanderbilt and Oregon State met in a Super Regional, despite all of Beaver Nation likely wanting to forget it ever happened.

And finally, Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball.com doesn’t see Oregon State losing to Vanderbilt, if they keep up their strong defensive showings. Of course, some parts of the Twitter world weren’t necessarily fans of Mister Rogers’ opinions.

• Sticking to the diamond, the Register-Guard was among the first to report that Oregon State pitcher Jake Thompson has been nominated for the Gregg Olson Award, an accolade given to the break-out player of the year in college baseball. The first-team, all-Pac-12 selection leads the country with 13 wins, while holding opponents to just a .180 batting average.

• In some slightly different alumni news, former Oregon State and Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Sammie Stroughter has been named as the new head football coach at Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, California, according to a tweet from Joe Davidson of the Sacramento Bee. The hiring of Stroughter comes just weeks after Beavers legend James Dockery also accepted a head coaching position at Xavier Prep in Palm Desert, California. The duo join a host of former Beavers who have joined the high school coaching ranks, specifically on the west coast, headlined by Lake Oswego’s Steve Coury.

• Head football coach Gary Andersen is trying to expand the recruiting reach of the Beavers program and at the moment, it looks like Oregon State is making a solid run at 2018 three-star running back Jerome Ford from the state of Florida. Ford, who plays at perennial powerhouse Armwood High School spoke with BeaversEdge about his recruiting interests, offers and potential visits.

• The Orlando Sentinel is in the midst of their College Football Rankings and Oregon State came in at the #80 overall spot on their list, 14 notches above opening day opponent Colorado State. Across the board, the Beavers return 14 starters from last season, including a loading backfield, which our own Andrew Kovac took a deeper look into over the past few days.