2013 Corvallis Regional

(capsules compiled by Sean Ryan, Phil Stanton, Zachary Kerr)

1. Oregon State Beavers

Corvallis, Oregon

Automatic bid - won Pac-12 title

Notes: The Beavers have won 40 or more games six times in school history, all under Pat Casey, the school’s all-time wins leader. OSU is in the NCAA tournament for the fifth straight year, and will host a Regional for the fourth time since 2005. The Beavers won national titles in 2006 and 2007. Oregon State can flat out pitch, ranking second in the nation in WHIP (1.03) and ERA (2.15) – opponents scored five or more runs 10 times all year (twice in the final weekend), and two or less 25 times. Andrew Moore makes batters put the ball in play and has limited them to a .193 average. Matt Boyd has thrown three complete games and limited opponents to a .196 average. And Ben Wetzler limits hitters to .234. Overall, opponents hit .212 off the Beavers. Michael Conforto does a little of everything at the plate, leading the team in homers, slugging and on-base average, and Dylan Davis adds plenty of pop with a team-best 27 extra-base hits.

2. Texas A&M Aggies

Notes: The Aggies return to the NCAA tournament for the seventh time in Rob Childress’ eight years. Texas A&M is 32-27 overall and went 13-16 in its first year in the SEC, placing sixth in the Western Division. Krey Bratsen, Daniel Mengden and Mikey Reynolds were named All-SEC Second Team, while Mengden and Cole Lankford were voted onto the SEC All-Defensive Team. Bratsen is 12th in the country in sacrifice bunts with 17. Mengden is eighth in the nation with a WHIP of 0.87 and 17th in hits allowed per nine innings with 6.04. Jason Jester is 19th with 13 saves.

3. UC Santa Barbara Gauchos

Notes: UC Santa Barbara received one of the final at-large bids after a strong year in the Big West, which does not have a conference tournament. The Gauchos went 28-28 a year ago and finished sixth in the Big West before winning 34 games and finishing third in the Big West (17-10). Coach Andrew Checketts, who pitched for Oregon State, spent time as an assistant at UC Riverside and Oregon before taking over at UCSB. He was known as being a tremendous recruiter and pitching coach. Junior Brandon Trinkwon is an excellent shortstop who played in the Cape Cod Summer League and started at short in the All-Star Game. First baseman Tyler Kuresa, a 10th round draft pick out of high school and former player at Oregon, has some pop with 24 extra-base hits. The Gauchos rank ninth in the country in hit by pitch. Sophomore right-hander Austin Pettibone led UCSB with eight wins as a freshman and led the team again this year with nine wins.
 

4. UTSA Roadrunners

Notes: The Roadrunners defeated Dallas Baptist 11-4 Sunday to win the Western Athletic Conference Tournament and earn the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament under first-year head coach Jason Marshall. They have won seven straight and 10 of their past 11. UTSA has met Oregon State once, with the Beavers posting a 10-7 victory in 10 innings on Feb. 28, 2011. Texas A&M owns a 21-9 advantage all-time against the Roadrunners. UTSA and UC Santa Barbara have not faced each other. Riley Good has been really good at the plate, carrying a 16-game hit streak into the NCAA tourney. He has raised his batting average to .336. The Roadrunners have two players with double-figure home runs: RJ Perucki with 12 and Daniel Rockett with 10. Brock Hartson has made 16 starts, posting a 9-4 record with a 3.10 ERA.