Oregon State Beavers baseball the No. 2 seed in Pac-12 Tournament in Arizona: What to know
After winning the final series of the regular season against Arizona but falling in the final game in a de facto Pac-12 regular season championship game, the Oregon State baseball team earned the No. 2 seed in the Pac-12 Tournament set to begin Tuesday.
The Beavers (41-13, 19-10 Pac-12) have been ranked inside the top-10 of most major college baseball polls all season and will open the tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Wednesday for pool play against No. 8 Stanford.
Here’s how the tournament works.
Pac-12 Tournament format
The Pac-12 Tournament will begin Tuesday with the top nine teams in the conference beginning round-robin pool play through Thursday. Each team has been split into three pods or pools and will play against the other two teams hoping to move on to the semifinals.
The three pool winners will advance to Friday’s single-elimination semifinals along with one wild card team. The wild card will be determined by the best record of the non-advancing top-3 teams. Any tiebreaker will be awarded to the highest seeded team, so if each team finishes 1-1 in pool play, the highest seed will advance.
Semifinal matchups will pit the highest-seeded team against the lowest on one side with the second highest and the second-lowest seed on the other. Teams from the same pool will not play each other in the semifinals, however.
Pool play will take place from Tuesday to Thursday, with each team playing twice. Semifinals begin Friday, and the title game is at 7 p.m. Saturday. Every game will be broadcast on Pac-12 Network aside from the championship game, which will air on ESPNU.
Pac-12 Tournament outlook
The No. 2 seed in the tournament, the Beavers will open pool play on Wednesday against No. 8 Stanford and will then play No. 5 Arizona State on Thursday with each game at 10 a.m.
Oregon State took both of its regular season series against the Cardinal and Sun Devils, taking two out of three against Stanford and sweeping ASU. The Beavers took down the Sun Devils 13-8, 9-1, 9-7 in early April at Goss Stadium. The following week they took down Stanford at Goss in the first two games, 6-0 and 3-1 before falling in the Sunday finale 11-10.
If the Beavers make it through pool play they would play on Friday in the semifinals at either 2:30 p.m. or 7 p.m.
How the Beavers got here
Ranked in the top-10 in most major college baseball polls all season, the Beavers won eight of their 10 conference series, including three sweeps.
Oregon State went 22-3 in out of conference matchups and boast a 24-2 record in Corvallis and an 8-1 record in neutral site games, but a 9-10 record in true road games.
The Beavers have series wins against No. 7 Utah, No. 9 Washington, No. 5 Arizona State, No. 8 Stanford, No. 3 Oregon, Washington State, UCLA, and No. 1 Arizona. OSU lost two series – both via sweeps – against No. 4 USC and No. 6 Cal, though the third game between the Beavers and Trojans was rained out and not played.
Oregon State is led by future MLB first-round draft pick Travis Bazzana, who has a .429 average with 26 home runs, 62 RBIs and 31 stolen bases. Gavin Turley is another batter to watch with a .293 average, 18 home runs, and a team-leading 69 RBIs.
On the bump, Aiden May has had a standout year as the Friday starter with a 2.59 ERA, a perfect 6-0 record, and 68 strikeouts in 59 innings pitched. Jacob Kmatz has also been strong with a 3.48 ERA and 79 punchouts in 75 innings pitched with a 6-2 record.
Though sometimes the Beavers have struggled with consistency out of the bullpen, Joey Mundt has a 1.69 ERA over 26 2/3 innings with 29 strikeouts and Bridger Holmes has a 2.25 ERA with 41 strikeouts over 28 innings pitched.
Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.
This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon State Beavers baseball is No. 2 seed in Pac-12 Tournament
