A lineup gamble, a coaching handoff and superb defense: 3 things that fueled Oregon State baseball’s College World Series berth

The lineup that

launched the Oregon State baseball team

into the

College World Series

became official less than an hour before the first pitch of Monday’s win-or-go-home Game 3 at the Corvallis Super Regional.

But, really, it materialized one night earlier.

The Beavers had just

suffered a listless 3-1 defeat

to the Florida State Seminoles in Game 2 of the best-of-three series, during which they mustered just six hits — all singles — and produced 14 strikeouts. If not for a

furious ninth-inning rally

that led to a 10th-inning walk-off win in Game 1, the Beavers’ season would have been over.

So as coach

Mitch Canham

shifted his focus to the finale — and weighed possible changes — his mind immediately went to shuffling his lineup following Game 2’s defeat. He wanted a spark at the top and he wanted an all-right-handed unit, knowing Oregon State would face a left-handed starter for the third consecutive game. The solution, he decided, was to move third baseman

Trent Caraway

back to the leadoff spot in place of the struggling

Easton Talt

, and give freshman

Carson McEntire

the first postseason start of his young career.

As it turns out, Canham’s move at the top didn’t surprise everyone.

“I think last night we were both thinking the same thing,” Canham said Sunday night. “Because I showed up today and … (Caraway said) he had a feeling I was going to do that.”

The moves helped propel the Beavers (47-14-1) to Omaha.

Caraway led off the bottom of the first inning with a line drive single to left, jumpstarting a game-changing first inning that featured seven runs and five hits, including back-to-back home runs. And the second of those homers came from McEntire, in his first-career postseason at-bat, when he belted a towering shot to left field.

The Beavers sent 11 batters to the plate in the opening frame, chased FSU starter Wes Mendes with two outs, and opened up a commanding 7-2 lead.

By the end of a

night filled with fireworks,

Oregon State had amassed 12 hits, including five home runs, during an explosive 14-10 win. Caraway finished 2 for 4 with four RBIs, two runs scored and a walk, which included a grand slam in the third inning, when the Beavers added six runs and built a decisive 13-3 lead. McEntire added a walk in the third and finished 1 for 3 with a homer, walk and two runs scored.

“We set the tone early,” Canham said. “And our guys didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal.”

And it was Caraway who slipped the car out of park and stepped on the accelerator. The junior third baseman

opened the season

as the Beavers’ leadoff hitter, filling the role over the first 18 games, before he tiptoed into an extended slump that sent him down to the bottom third of the order. But he had

rediscovered his mojo

down the stretch of the regular season and

went berserk in the Corvallis Regional

, hitting .530 with five home runs, one double, 10 RBIs, nine runs scored and seven walks, earning Most Outstanding Player honors.

When Canham chatted with Caraway before Game 3, his message was clear.

“Hey, man,” he told Caraway. “When you go into battle, you’ve got to take your meanest, toughest, armiest warrior, give him the shield and the sword and go out there and get them.”

If it sounds like Canham was motivated by a little Spartan military, well, that’s because he was.

“We’ve been watching a lot of “300” highlights, a lot of big action movies,” he said, smiling. “I saw TC, like Leonidas, grabbing the shield and the spear and running into battle today and I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s him. He’s going to set the tone. He has that look and he’s ready to roll.’ And that’s the guy right there that you want stepping foot in (the batters’ box). He’s like Bamm-Bamm walking up there, dragging his bat into the box.”

It’s unclear if the Beavers will stick with the new lineup in Omaha. But it sure sounds like it.

“We might see more of that going forward,” Canham said.

An enduring legacy.

pic.twitter.com/goAkJyatpz

A hug and a handoff

In the aftermath of the Beavers’ super regional win, as players took a victory lap around Goss Stadium and a sellout crowd chanted “O-ma-ha! O-ma-ha!,” a legend approached a coach in front of the first base dugout and the pair wrapped each other in a bear hug.

The legend was

Pat Casey

. The coach was Canham. And two of the most influential people in program history shared a memorable embrace.

“Case has been such a great mentor to me and so many people, really,” Canham said of his former coach, who built Oregon State into a national power. “I cherish every second I get to spend with him. He inspires me to want to do great things. I just want to complete the job that Jack Riley and Casey started and it built.”

Doesn’t it feel like that celebratory hug was more of a handoff? Doesn’t it feel like now — finally — after six

years of COVID

and MLB draft picks and oh-so-close postseason performances and conference detonations that

Oregon State is Mitch Canham’s program?

Oh, sure, it officially became his on June 19, 2019, when he was hired as coach. But at Oregon State, success is measured by trips to Omaha, fair or not. And for all of Canham’s notable achievements — four berths to the NCAA baseball tournament, two trips to super regionals, double-digit draft picks,

a No. 1 overall selection

— the one thing that had eluded him was a trip to Omaha.

Until now.

It was Casey who turned the sleepy program into a three-time national champion and perennial power during his

Hall of Fame career

, and that success

cast a hard-to-avoid shadow

over Goss. But Canham built this team from the ground up. He hired the coaching staff. He modernized the training, weight and nutrition departments. He fundraised, and lobbied for, the construction of a brand new, state-of-the-art hitting facility. He constructed the roster. He convinced multiple star prospects — from

Gavin Turley

to Caraway to

Dax Whitney

— to forgo MLB millions for a chance to chase a championship. He recruited difference-making transfers. He made the

bold move to go independent

when other OSU programs temporarily joined the WCC. He

kept the roster together

when the Pac-12 blew up. And he groomed 40 teenagers and 20-somethings into super regional champions, leaning on a mix of player development, tough love, monotonous daily work and astute game management.

Canham’s Beavers

came really close in 2022

. They

had a chance

in 2024. But they

finally broke through

over the weekend.

The Beavers are heading to Omaha for the eighth time in program history. But it’s the first under Canham and, finally, this is his program.

The handoff came with a hug.

Defense to the rescue

Between the late-game heroics in the opener, the brilliant pitching in the encore and the fireworks in the finale, it’s easy to lose sight of an important element of the Beavers’ road to Omaha.

Defense.

After a disappointing defensive effort last season, the Beavers returned to their roots under the guidance of assistant coach

Joey Wong

in 2024, and bring the seventh-best fielding percentage (.982) in college baseball into the College World Series. And OSU’s defense was particularly impactful against Florida State in Game 1, when Oregon State ended three different innings — and three different scoring threats — with alert and impressive defensive plays.

The first came in the second inning, when FSU’s No. 9 hitter, Hunter Carns, hammered a double off the wall in right-center field. Talt gave chase from right field and couldn’t make leaping catch, but center fielder

Canon Reeder

scooped up the ricochet and fired toward the infield.

Aiva Arquette

— who is one of the smoothest shortstops in the nation — ranged over to snag the cutoff, then tossed a beautiful, off-balance relay throw across his body to beat James Hankerson Jr. at the plate.

To be sure, the play was set up by awful base running by Hankerson, who did not sprint full-speed on contact because he thought Carns’ double was leaving the stadium. But it was also pristine, heads-up baseball by the Beavers — and it was only a taste of what was to come.

In the seventh, Turley fired late to home plate after a Max Williams run-scoring single to left, but catcher

Wilson Weber

caught Williams napping and launched a bullet behind him at first to end the frame. Then, in the eighth, Talt threw a picture-perfect strike from right field to third base, beating Chase Williams as he tried to snatch an extra base on a Brody DeLamielleure RBI single.

Florida State scored a run all three innings, but they could — and perhaps should — have scored more. The trio of defensive jewels prevented further damage, which loomed large in a game that went to extra innings.

“Those are three huge plays that probably won’t get enough recognition,” Canham said. “Yes, they scored a run, but how did our guys respond to adversity? Those are very exciting moments in the game that I’m proud of. Yeah, it stinks giving up a run, but that’s going to happen from time to time. But how they responded to it is everything.”

—

Joe Freeman

|

jfreeman@oregonian.com

| 503-294-5183 |

@BlazerFreeman

|

@freemanjoe.bsky.social

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