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Preview: Oregon State Baseball Hosts Inconsistent UW This Weekend

The Huskies bring their strong pitching to Goss March 23rd-25th.

NCAA Baseball: College World Series-Cal State Fullerton vs Oregon State Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Oregon State’s latest run through the Pac-12 began with a sweep of the Cal Bears in Berkeley last weekend. Now the Beavs return home to face that one purple team from Seattle. While the 10-8 Huskies have struggled a bit in this opening part of the year, they’re still a team with a lot of potential with one of the best pitchers in the entire country.

In the preseason, I talked a bit about what this team is capable of in a preview article. OSU should on their A game this weekend.

Projected starting pitchers are subject to change.

How To Watch

Friday and Sunday’s games will be televised on Pac-12 Networks. Saturday will be streamed here.

How To Listen

For a full list of radio stations across the state that will carry the games, check the game notes provided by OSU athletics. OSUBeavers.com will also have the audio all weekend.

Schedule

Game 1: Friday, Mar. 23 - 7:00 PM PT

Game 2: Saturday, Mar. 24 - 1:35 PM PT

Game 3: Sunday, Mar. 25 - 3:00 PM PT

Opponent Outlook

In my season preview, I said that UW could get back into the top four of the Pac-12. I still believe that. Technically they are right now thanks to a sweep of Arizona this past weekend to start their league schedule. It was just their second series win of the year including a 2-1 win over UC Riverside. They also split their opening series 2-2 with Sacramento State. They had wins against Illinois State, Minnesota, and Michigan State peppered in there as well.

The highlight of their season so far came in that UC Riverside series when Saturday starter Joe DeMers threw the first perfect game in program history. DeMers currently has the fourth-lowest ERA in the country at .35, which is also the lowest in the Pac-12. The junior has also allowed the fewest hits (9) and runs (3) in the league.

That being said, an injury may end up keeping him off of the mound.

Offensively, the Huskies could use a little help. They are seventh in the league in hits with 150, which 43 less than Oregon State at the moment. They’re also ninth in the league in runs with 74 compared to compared to OSU’s 121. Freshman outfielder Braiden Ward has his college career off to a fairly decent start with five stolen bases and a .268 batting average. Junior Mason Cerillo leads the team in batting average with a .382.

Like I said, there’s definitely potential and talent within these Huskies. It just seems to be a matter of execution...and getting the bats going.

In Conclusion

On paper, Oregon State is like the better team. That Saturday game against DeMers though is sort of worrisome, but Oregon State should take the series.

Come on back for the recaps as the games unfold. We will have stats in those, even though apparently, OSU doesn't like those...