Corvallis Regional Preview

Everything in the 2024 college baseball season leads up to the next 3 weeks. The Beavers fell short of the Pac-12 title but will have an opportunity to make that a footnote in this season’s storyline starting with a regional in front of Beaver Nation at a ballpark in which they have gone 24-2 this season. There is plenty of potential for offense, with all four teams bringing offensive firepower, and the weather for the first two days should suit that just fine.

As a quick refresher, the NCAA Baseball Tournament starts with 16 regionals, which consist of a 4-team double elimination tournament. The winners of those regionals go on to play a best-of-three series at the higher seeded teams home stadium in the Super Regionals. Those winners make up the 8 teams that make it to Omaha for the College World series, where the format is repeated (double elimination pools, best-of-three championship series) to name a national champion. The Beavers last made it to Omaha when they took home the title in 2018 and will be looking to do so for the first time in the Mitch Canham era.

The schedule is as follows with all games broadcasting somewhere within the ESPN universe. All times are pacific.

Friday, May 31:

• Game 1: Nicholls vs. UC Irvine, 1 PM, ESPN+
• Game 2: Tulane vs. Oregon State, 6 PM, ESPN2

Saturday, June 1:

• Game 3: Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 1 PM, TBA
• Game 4: Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 7 PM, TBA

Sunday, June 2:

• Game 5: Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 loser, 12 PM, TBA
• Game 6: Game 4 winner vs. Game 5 winner, 6 PM, TBA

Monday, June 3:

• Game 7 if necessary

The 2022 team is the only one in Mitch Canham’s tenure that eclipses the talent level this Beaver club has, and despite a mid-season swoon, injuries, and some inconsistent performances in the bullpen has gotten the former Beaver catcher his second home regional in 4 opportunities.

Freshman Trent Caraway was in line for a potential return to the field for the Pac-12 tournament, but he did not see any action. Jabin Trosky has had his moments as he has settled in at 3B over the last month of the season, but adding Caraway’s bat to the lineup has big implications for the Beavers. Micah McDowell is Oregon State’s second-best hitter and has been battling injuries throughout the year. He missed some time in the Pac-12 Tournament and will hopefully be back in CF this weekend.

It will be interesting to see what Canham does with his rotation this weekend. With the Beavers only playing two games in Scottsdale, Eric Segura is sitting on two weeks of rest. Getting the freshman an opportunity in a non-elimination game against the 4 seed in the regional would not only be a way to ease him into playoff baseball but would line up Aiden May and Jacob Kmatz to pitch in elimination games later on in the series. Chances are Canham will stick with the usual rotation, but it’s an interesting option to consider.

Coach Ben Orloff is in his 6th year as head coach of the Anteaters. He was a shortstop for UC Irvine from 2006-2009 and won the Brooks Wallace award as the top collegiate shortstop in his final year in college. He returned as an assistant coach after a stint in the Astros minor league organization. Orloff was the Big West Coach of the Year in 2021 after leading UC Irvine to a conference title and a 2 seed in the Stanford regional.

The Anteaters have made it to Omaha twice in their history. Thier last trip was a painful memory for the Beavers, when a 3 seed UC Irvine team took out an Oregon State team with Michael Conforto, Jace Fry, and Logan Ice in the Corvallis regional before sweeping Oklahoma State in a Super Regional to reach the College World Series. That was Orloff’s first year as an assistant coach at his alma matter.

It has been an up-and-down season for the 2024 iteration of the ballclub. They lost only 3 times in non-conference play to start the season, including a sweep over regional-opponent Tulane. They Anteaters beat eventual Big West regular season champions UC Santa Barbara in their conference series at home, but series losses to UC San Diego and Cal Poly sent UC Irvine into the at-large pool.

They are a well-balanced team that compares well to Oregon State in terms of raw statistics. They don't have the same kind of power but get on base better than anyone else in this regional. LF Myles Smith paces the attack and is one of three hitters in this regional with a batting average over .400. He walks 20% of the time as well and is a constant presence on the base paths. SS Woody Hadeen is the epitome of a table-setter. He has no home runs this year and only 10 doubles, but doesn't strike out and gets on base at a .531 clip.

Pitching-wise, UC Irvine boasts one of the better starting pitchers in the nation in Nick Pinto, who will likely start the opener against Nicholls and miss the Beavers. Righty Trevor Hansen is the Saturday starter and would be the likely opponent should OSU and Irvine meet in the 2nd round of games. He has struggled with walks at times this year and opponents are slugging .442 against him, which is something the Beavers can take advantage of.

Grad transfer Ricky Tibbets has held down the closer role for the Anteaters, and similar to Bridger Holmes has gotten the job done despite a few more baserunners than you would like in that role. Lefty Ricky Ojeda is a multi-inning reliever who has struck out 69 in 47 innings of work and keeps the ball on the ground when it does get in play. His 24.5% K-BB% is the best mark of any reliever in the regional and he has shown the ability to throw multiple innings on back-to-back days.

It had been 25 years since Nicholls last made the NCAA Tournament when coach Mike Silva led them there last year in his second season at the helm. That earned him the Southland Conference Coach of the Year and laid the groundwork for another run in 2024. This is the 5th overall appearance in the tournament for the Colonels, and the first time ever that they have made back-to-back appearances.

Nicholls lost only 3 of their first 20 games of the season, with two of those being to regional competition Tulane. The school from south Louisiana then hit a rough patch, dropping 7 in a row to Nebraska, Louisiana Tech, and New Orleans before winning 6 of their last 7 series of the year to secure the 2 seed in the Southland Conference tournament, which they duly swept through, outscoring opponents 38-10 to capture the conference’s automatic bid and keep rival Lamar out of the tournament.

The Colonels do not pack the same kind of firepower offensively as Oregon State or UC Irvine, but they can still swing it and average just under 9 runs per game. First Basemen Edgar Alvarez may be the 2nd best hitter in the regional, carrying a .441/.518/.680 slash line to go along with 12 home runs and 21 doubles this year. Garret Felix is another one to watch out for. He has stolen 11 bases this year and while strikeouts can be a problem (22.5% rate on the year), he gets the bat on the ball to the tune of a .316 batting average.

Nicholls Friday night starter is the most prolific strikeout artist in the regional. Jacob Mayers has rung up 105 hitters in 69.1 innings so far this year, the same number he had through last year. He also walks 23.7% of batters he faces, which keeps his ERA up above 4 (4.28), and an outing against him an adventure. He will likely start against Pinto and UC Irvine on Friday and miss the Beavers. Michael Quevedo (15 GS, 5.01 ERA) has more control, but has a fly ball rate of 52.3%, something that Oregon State will try to take advantage of if they match up later on in the bracket.

There is no dedicated closer in the Colonels bullpen, 4 relievers have 2 saves a piece. Nico Saltaformaggio and Devin Desandro each have over 60 innings pitched this year primarily out of the bullpen and ERAs under 4. Expect them to piggyback the Nicholls starter of the day and look to shorten games and avoid digging into a bullpen that lacks some depth after those two.

The Beavers will see a familiar face in the Tulane dugout should the two teams meet. Jay Uhlman spent 9 years as an assistant coach at Oregon under George Horton. He moved to a similar position at Tulane in 2020 when Horton left the Ducks program and took over as interim head coach mid-way through 2022 when Travis Jewett was let go after failing to deliver a regional appearance after 5 and a half years at the helm.

The standard had been set high for Tulane baseball, who reached the tournament 12 times under head coach Rick Jones and made it to Omaha twice. The most recent trip was 2005, where the Green Wave handed Oregon State its first of two losses to send the Beavers off to BBQ early that year. The party kept going under head coach David Pierce, with two more regionals in his two years from 2015-16, but Tulane found themselves on the outside looking in after Pierce left to take the head coach position at Texas. Uhlman got the Green Wave back in the mix in his first full year as coach, using a hot streak in the AAC tournament to join Oregon State in the LSU regional. Losses to LSU and Sam Houston sent the Green Wave home without an opportunity to square off directly against Oregon State.

Uhlman used the run to build Tulane into a more well-rounded baseball team in 2024. The 2023 iteration was not a good team for most of the year, with a 19-42 overall record, an 8-16 conference mark and a run differential of -102. Things have gone far better for the Green Wave this year, who have scored 76 more runs and allowed 102 fewer this season. They started the season unevenly, including a sweep at the hands of UC Irvine and a series loss to Louisiana, and two series losses in their first three conference series. From there they lost just one more series and hit their way through the AAC tournament, scoring 11 or more runs in 3 of the 4 games they played.

The Green Wave offense has one specialty and that is hitting for power. They have 92 home runs and 122 doubles on the season, and their team slugging percentage of .493 is second only to Oregon State in the regional. Tulane needs that since they don't walk much (11.6 BB%) and hit .283. 1B Brady Marget is a notable departure from that template, with a .340 average to go along with his 10 home runs and just a 12.5% strikeout rate. Catcher Collin Tuft has some patience at the plate (.440 OBP) and has 11 home runs to his name.

Oregon State is likely to see lefty Luc Fladda in the opening game of the regional. The Green Wave Friday night starter, Fladda is a control artist who limits walks, but doesn't strike many out and lets the ball get in the air, which his 5.38 ERA attest to. He has limited home runs to an impressive degree this year, only 3.6% of his fly balls cross the fence. Oregon State will put that skill to the test Friday night.

Lefty Billy Price is a swingman who has started 5 games this year but has pitched primarily out of the bullpen in his 19 appearances. He is a contact-oriented pitcher who gives up a lot of fly balls, but similar to Fladda has kept them in the park. Righties Jacob Moore (25 APP, 41 IP, 3.73 ERA) and Henry Shuffler (28 APP, 43 IP, 3.56 ERA) are the other key bullpen pieces on a staff that has enough depth to mitigate short outings from their starters.