No dogpile yet, but Beavers take steps toward one

Published 12:00 am Sunday, June 2, 2013

CORVALLIS — After Oregon State’s 6-1 victory over Texas A&M Sunday night to wrap up the Corvallis regional, the Aggies’ Rob Childress delivered some words of praise to his coaching counterpart.

“Coach Childress said, ‘I can’t believe how well your guys play together,’ ” OSU’s Pat Casey said. “That’s as big a compliment I can get from a guy I have so much respect for.”

The No. 3-seeded Beavers (48-10) are two victories away from their next goal — a berth in the College World Series. They’ll face Kansas State in a best-two-of-three-game super regionals next weekend at Goss Stadium.

It remains to be seen whether these Beavers can match the feat of those 2006 and ’07 OSU teams that won it all. There’s little doubt, though, they possess the camaraderie and esprit de corps and self-belief of those championship clubs.

“We don’t have any individuals on this team,” said senior first baseman Danny Hayes, the hitting star of Sunday’s tournament clincher with two hits and three RBIs. “We work together. When one guy has a rough day, the guy behind him picks him up.

“We have a great group of guys who all love each other. We are there to pick each other up. We have a special group.”

Hayes is right on about one thing. The Beavers take turns in the spotlight. On Friday, it was Dylan Davis and Matt Boyd. The next day, it was Ryan Barnes and Andrew Moore.

On Sunday, as a sea of orange cheered them on at Goss, it was Hayes and Ben Wetzler leading the way.

Wetzler came through with the clutch performance of his career, throwing a complete-game four-hit gem that had the Aggies on their heels most of the way. The junior left-hander from Clackamas walked four, struck out 10 and was a bulldog in the late innings, finishing despite throwing a season-high 121 pitches.

“I was wondering who he was going to hit first, me or Nate (Yeskie, the OSU pitching coach), if we pulled him in the ninth,” Casey said. “It’s easy to say the guy has good stuff, but he is just such a competitor. That’s what separates him from a lot of other guys who have good stuff.”

It was a tradition for the Beavers to fall behind early in this tournament. It happened in their opener against Texas-San Antonio and Saturday night against Cal Santa Barbara. They did it again Sunday, Wetzler yielding a first-inning run after walking leadoff man Mikey Reynolds. Texas A&M scored when OSU left fielder Michael Conforto misplayed a base hit by Cole Lankford into a triple.

That’s all the Aggies were to get. Wetzler, his fastball ranging from 92-to-94 mph, was too good.

Wetzler “settled in and did a really nice job with secondary stuff,” Childress said. “His changeup, slider and competitiveness were outstanding.”

“Great pitcher,” said Texas A&M left fielder Jonathan Moroney, who had a pair of doubles for half of his team’s hits. “He stayed strong throughout the whole game and kept his composure on the mound. He wasn’t better than us. We just had an off day. But he was hitting his spots and couldn’t be beat.”

Wetzler got some strong defensive play behind him, notably with center fielder Max Gordon’s diving catch of a deep drive by Reynolds to save a run and end the Aggies’ fifth.

“It started off pretty rough,” said Wetzler, who improved to 8-1 this season. “As soon as I got the ball down, things started to change a little bit for me. Max goes out and makes a SportsCenter top 10 type of catch again. It’s a team game, and I just tried to do my part.”

Wetzler said he was working on “pure adrenalin. I don’t know if I ever felt tired. I went on the juices flowing in my body.”

All three of Oregon State’s regional games went to the late innings. “We want to make it interesting for Beaver Nation,” Hayes noted with a smile. “Everybody got their money’s worth.”

It was 1-1 in the seventh. To that point, the Beavers had left nine runners on base, six of them in scoring position. Then Hayes ripped a two-out double just inside the right-field line that scored a pair of runs. The Beavers tacked on three more for insurance in the ninth, running their hit total to 14 for the day.

“They played a great game,” said Childress, generous with his praise for the victors. “They played better than we did. They deserved to win. They’ve played well all year. That’s why they were a No. 3 seed. We got off to a good start, then went to the bullpen and didn’t get it done.

“Give Oregon State credit. They got some key hits, grabbed the lead and extended it in the ninth. We made some mistakes early to give them the lead, but that’s why Oregon State has 48 wins. They don’t make mistakes. Oregon State played much better than anybody else this weekend.”

This Oregon State team isn’t perfect. The Beavers, so deep in the pitching department, have little off the bench at the other positions. But the starters take turns lifting each other up. There is solid leadership and veteran experience. They do the little things to win big games. And oh, those arms.

“A lot of time you have to give pitching credit,” Childress said. “They have a great rotation. The few guys they have to go to out of the bullpen are outstanding, too.”

Casey has been waiting six years to get another team to Omaha. This team has a great chance.

“We played well today,” said Casey, voted Pac-12 coach of the year for the fifth time this season. “We beat a good team. I think we’re going to continue to play well.”

The Beavers mobbed Wetzler out by the pitcher’s mound after Sunday’s win, but the celebration was subdued. As if something bigger is coming.

“We’re not done yet,” Hayes said. “We all have one goal in our minds. We’re not going to be satisfied till we reach that goal.”

After the game, Mitch Canham — the catcher and co-captain of Oregon State’s back-to-back titles in ’06 and ’07 — delivered this tweet:

“Only one dogpile a year. Best way to end a season is with a win. Few teams get to do that. This Beav team has a chance!”

Indeed it does. Championship teams develop in increments through the course of a season. The Beavers have made some important steps. Just a couple of more to go.

kerryeggers@portlandtribune.com

Twitter: @kerryeggers