National title is back home in Corvallis
We are all so crazy happy, and proud! Coach Pat Casey’s 2018 baseball team has succeeded with the redemption tour, winning Game 3 with style and confidence, and bringing home the NCAA College World Series champion title. We were with you every step of the way; we thank you for the gray hairs earned in Game 2, and we love you, Beaver Nation. Here’s how we saw it from the College of Business:
First of all, many thanks to our IT team who set up the big screen in Austin Hall. With the stillness of summer mode, the ebb and flow of emotions in the calls of ESPN’s announcers echoed through the building and brought faculty and staff to a standstill. It also stopped the families of future students in the building for START orientations.
Many of the usual suspects gathered, (you know who you are) most agreeing that there perhaps was a need to share heart medication after the Game 2’s breathtaking finish.
Melissa Elmore, office manager of the Austin Family Business Program, only wore her baseball jersey after 3 pm, since wearing it straight for the third day, she thought, might raise eyebrows. We love you, IT and our College of Business sports fans.
Calling the plays
ESPN – do we love you? Since it is nearly impossible to talk about Game 3 without mentioning that standing ovation of a Game 2, we have to talk about ESPN. (boo). What the heck! Publishing graphics on social media announcing the Razorbacks as the victors? What? I guess y’all must have been busy in the backroom making those graphics, and you didn’t see this play.
Yes, that’s right, we could watch that all day long: three Razorbacks running to catch the foul ball, and none of them actually doing so. We could shake our heads, and go on about “teamwork makes the dream work,” a favorite saying around here at the college. However, we’ll try to just cut some slack for those poor fellows from Arkansas who will replay that moment over and over in their heads. For the rest. of. their. lives.
Above all, ESPN, it shows you don’t know that beavers mean business; we only joke around occasionally, and almost never about our sports teams. We also never give up.
One more thing, ESPN, could you spare a good word for the best hitter in the nation, Nick Madrigal (sociology major), or must we be negative at his every at-bat? Indeed, he did not have the magic at the plate in these games as pitchers wisely opted to try and walk him.
But we at the college, where we know a thing or two about statistics – a .380 batting average in 2017, a .367 batting average in 2018 – were eagerly waiting for him to crack one out of the park so that we could hear you seething through your teeth.
Perhaps we should point out that congratulatory note on Twitter? From the Chicago White Sox? “Congrats to #WhiteSox No. 4 overall pick @NickMadrigal_3 and his @BeaverBaseball teammates on winning the College World Series!” Chicago White Sox – showing the love.
We love you, Chicago. We love our No. 4 draft pick. And Adley Rutschman, we love you, too.
College World Series Most Outstanding Player
Rutschman, the sophomore in business, won 2018 College World Series Most Outstanding Player. Rutschman, who also played a year of football at Oregon State, has an Oregonian sports pedigree extending back to his grandfather. Ad Rutschman eschewed a professional career with the Detroit Lions for coaching and mentoring, and retired from Linfield College as the winningest coach in college football. Linfield continues to build on the current all-divisions national record streak for consecutive winning seasons.
Not our legacy, but Beavers love legacies, and legends, too. And we see one forming in Rutschman.
Rutschman, whose position is catcher, is a team leader and strategic player with 83 RBIs for the season to set an OSU record. Since focusing solely on baseball, his batting average moved to a sick .408, from .234 in 2017. Rutschman set a College World Series record with 17 hits, batting .567 for the series.
College of Business junior Steven Kwan, drafted by Cleveland, was injured in earlier games and could not play in Game 3, and only a split second in Game 2. Kwan was usually the leader in the batting lineup as well as the centerfielder, and he gracefully became a leader in the dugout, cheering on teammates.
All told, the pitching of freshman Kevin Abel in Game 3, a complete game shutout allowing just two hits, is in the record books. It was his fourth win at the CWS. However, can we talk about the class act of College of Business sophomore Jake Mulholland, closing pitcher in Game 2, who took over for Abel in the top of the ninth?
One strikeout, one batter reaches first, and – boom, Mulholland fields the next hit to line up the double play at second and first. Goodnight, Game 2.
College of Business congratulates all of the Oregon State baseball players, and shares the love for the 15 teammates of 34 that study business. Tyler Malone, who minors in business, served in the Beavs starting lineup as a designated hitter, and made critical homeruns throughout the series. Freshman in business, Zach Clayton, was pinch runner for Zak Taylor in the ninth inning of Game 2, and scored the tying run after the Cadyn Grenier fly-out drama and the base hit that followed.
Our Players
Jordan Britton, Zach Clayton, Dakota Donovan, Brandon Eisert, Bryce Fehmel, Grant Gambrell, Michael Gretler, Preston Jones, Steven Kwan, Tyler Malone, Jake Mullholland, Adley Rutschman, Sam Tweedt, Cade Warren, Zack Zalesky.
Check out our Facebook photo album.
