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By: Lydia Murray
The Oregon State Beavers were selected as the 16th national seed in the 2019 NCAA Baseball tournament and will host the Corvallis Regional with Creighton, Michigan and Cincinnati all coming to town. Here’s a quick preview of each team.
- Oregon State University- 36-18-1 (Pac-12: 21-8)
Coming off last year’s National Championship the Beavers answered with another strong season going 36-18-1 and going 21-8 in the competitive Pac-12 finishing three games behind UCLA. As always, they were a stronger home team with a 17-10 mark but were especially strong in neutral site matchups with a 10-1-1 mark. Leading the squad is catcher Adley Rutschman who is expected to go first overall in the upcoming MLB draft, led the team in most offensive categories. He held a batting average of .419 with 17 homers, to go along with 57 RBI. The team combined for a .264 average. Jake Mulholland leads the pitching staff with a 1.81 ERA (minimum 30 innings pitched), in 44.2 innings pitched with 40 strikeouts. The pitching staff as a whole was strong, combining for a 2.98 team ERA with 505 strikeouts in 504.0 innings pitched. - Creighton University- 38-11 (BIG EAST: 14-4)
The Bluejays had another strong season winning the Big East Conference Tournament with a 3-0 record. They were a consistent team, going on multiple 4-6 game win streaks before losing.. They ended strong though as they enter the NCAA Tournament on an eight game win streak. The Bluejays were especially strong on the road with a 21-5 record, which should help them in this tournament. Their offense was led by infielder Jake Holton, who batted .405 with 56 RBI. They enter the year with a team batting average of .293. As for the pitchers, John Sakowski led the team with a 2.36 ERA (minimum 30 innings pitched) in 42.0 innings pitched with 40 strikeouts. Evan Johnson also had a strong season, with a 3.14 ERA in 71.2 innings pitched, to go along with 70 strikeouts. However, other than them, the pitching staff was mostly subpar with a 4.23 ERA with 385 strikeouts in 440.0 innings pitched. - University of Michigan- 41-18 (Big Ten: 16-7)
The Wolverines had a similar season to the Beavers, only losing more than two consecutive game twice and they strung together some extended win streaks. They also started the season strong with a eight game win streak, and then they went on a 13 game tear towards the end of the season to finish as strong as they started. However, they were a much better home team than they were away, with a 22-4 home record and a 12-11 away. Their offense was led by outfielder Jordan Brewer, who batted had a .342 average to go along with 52 RBI. The team had a .283 average while the pitching staff was average with a 3.49 ERA. On the mound Jeff Criswell led the team with a 2.76 ERA in 81.2 innings pitched with 87 strikeouts. Another pitcher to watch is Isaiah Paige who sports an ERA of 2.51 in 43 innings pitched. They had five pitchers with an ERA between 2.51 and 3.61 (minimum 30 innings pitched), so they have several they should be comfortable using if they get into an extended game situation. - University of Cincinnati- 30-29 (AAC: 13-11)
Cincinnati did not have a great season when compared to the others but are making their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament 1974 after going 4-0 in the American Athletic Conference Tournament. They finished the season slightly above .500 with a 30-29 record but entered the AAC tournament as the number two seed. They have struggled on the road with a 9-16 record but a solid mark of 16-12 at home. They were led offensively by infielder Joey Bellini, who had a batting average of .302 in with 26 RBI. The team had a .257 average. Nathan Kroger led the pitching staff with a 3.72 ERA (minimum 30 innings pitched) in 38.2 innings pitched with 36 strikeouts. However, their pitching staff as a whole was not good with a team ERA of 5.47 ERA in 523.0 innings pitched with 470 strikeouts.
Prediction: Oregon State
