Beaver Baseball: Final Tuneup Before Pac-12 Season

For most of the Pac-12, conference play starts this weekend. For the Beavers, there is one more tune-up series before 10 straight weekends of Pac-12 opponents. Cal State Northridge will travel to Corvallis and take on the Beavers for the first time since 2005. The Matadors are coming off of a competitive 2023 in the Big West and the combination of a solid lineup and a pitching staff with good control to test Oregon State.

Pac-12 Insider lays claim to the video stream for the Thursday and Saturday games, while Oregon State will carry Friday and Sunday on osubeavers.com.

• Thursday - Mar 7th @ 5:35 PM PT
• Friday - Mar 8th @ 4:05 PM PT
• Saturday - Mar 9th @ 1:05 PM PT
• Sunday - Mar 10th @ 12:05 PM PT

Oregon State Statistical Check In

With most of the regular starters getting to somewhere around 50 at bats, current season data is starting to grow out of small sample size territory. Oregon State’s batting profile reflects a team that is patient and drives the ball a long way and is willing to give up some strikeouts to achieve that. The pitching staff has dealt with some control issues that have let a few too many baserunners on but have left them stranded and allowed an impressively few 4 home runs to opposing teams so far this year. That 3.22 ERA will likely rise if they don’t find a way to limit the free passes, but it is still the makings of a pitching staff that can control a Pac-12 where no one other than OSU has emerged from the pack in non-conference play.

Opponent Preview

After being a somewhat regular participant in the 1990’s the Matadors have not made the tournament since last winning the Big West in 2002. Head coach Eduardo Cornejo stepped in last year and nearly broke that streak in his first season at the helm. Northridge narrowly missed out on a tournament berth last year, losing a tiebreaker to Cal State Fullerton that would have put them in the field for the first time since that 2002 appearance.

Nevertheless, it was a solid 3rd place finish in the Big West last year for the LA-area team and they are looking to build on it this year. It’s a deep field they are up against with teams like UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, and UC San Diego all in the mix in a league expected to get two NCAA tournament berths.

The Matadors were picked to finish 5th in the Big West in the preseason coaches' poll and 4th by D1 Baseball. They have stabilized after stumbling out of the gate in a series loss to Utah Valley, winning their last 8 games against competition they are as good or better than. The lineup has produced and has above average power, their 14 home runs lead the Big West in 2023. On the other side of the diamond, home runs have been an issue for the pitching staff who have given up 13 so far this year, but limiting free passes has helped contain the damage. The combination of low strikeout and walk rates indicate the Beaver bats should see pitches to hit in this series.

Players to Watch

SP Thomas Bainton Bainton was the Matador’s Saturday starter last year and put together a respectable 4.18 ERA in 14 starts. He has assumed the Friday role in 2024 and has put up a 2.24 ERA over his first 3 starts. He went 7 innings and threw 103 pitches in his last outing against Nevada so he can get deep into games if the Beavers let him. 13 of his outs were flyouts in that game, there are opportunities to drive the ball when Bainton is on the mound.

CF Jakob Simons There is a lot of punch in the 5’9” frame of the former walk-on Simons. He put together a .356/.450/.665 slash line in 2023 along with 14 home runs and 11 stolen bases, an effort earned him co-Big West Player of the Year honors. He has picked up right where he left off in 2024 while improving his strikeout rate from 18.5% to 14.8% and doubling his walk rate (8.1% to 14.8%).

What We Are Watching

• Which Players are Progressing Back from Injury? OSU ended the series against North Dakota State without the services of their Friday Night starter (Aiden May), two starting outfielders (Micah McDowell and Brady Kasper), closer (Kyle Scott), and backup catcher (Wilson Weber). While injury updates are always hard to come by in Corvallis, it seems that none of them are serious, and you would certainly rather all of those guys be healthy at the end of the season and in conference play rather than grinding it out in 40-degree weather in March. The Beavers depth has stood up well, particularly Dallas Macias who has become a middle-of-the-order bat over the last six games and has covered center field as well. We may not see any of those players return this weekend to give them one more week to recover, but losing any more is very much going to test the Beavers depth.
• Can the Pitching Staff Get a Handle on Thier Control? The Beavers issued 7 walks in Thursday’s game against NDSU. They got that under control through the rest of the series with a combined 6 over the next three games but hit a remarkable 11 batters in the series as well. Between walks and hit batters the Beavers are allowing an extra 6 baserunners a game, which will come back to bite them against stiffer competition. You could make a good argument that it did cost them the Arkansas game. OSU walked only 3 but hit 4 batters in that game, and 3 of those came around to score.
• Who Handles the DH Spot? With Macias moving into the outfield to cover down for McDowell and Kasper, it has been Jacob Krieg that has stepped into the DH slot over Tyce Peterson. Peterson started the season with plenty of power, hitting two home runs in Suprise, but also picked up 9 strikeouts in 14 at bats. Kreig has brought similar power (two of his 4 hits have been for extra bases), as well as a knack for getting hit by pitches. His 7 HBP are tied for 16th nationally despite having fewer than half the at-bats of most of the players on that list. That has driven his OBP to .561, which is hard to ignore. Can he keep that up when not wearing an average of one baseball for every start he makes?