Oregon State baseball at the College World Series: A look at Louisville Cardinals

The

Oregon State

baseball team will play the

Louisville Cardinals

on Friday in the opening round of the

College World Series

.

The Cardinals limped through the final month of the regular season, stumbling to a 10th-place finish in the Atlantic Coast Conference, but have rediscovered their mojo in the postseason and enter the eight-team CWS on a roll.

What can the Beavers expect when they face Louisville in Omaha?

Here’s a look at the Cardinals:

Record:

40-22

Coach:

Dan McDonnell, 19th season

Top hitters:

Eddie King Jr. (.362, 17 homers, 60 RBIs, 18 doubles, 44 runs scored), Lucas Moore (.353, 10 doubles, 51 stolen bases, 83 runs scored, 48 RBIs), Jake Munroe (.345, 12 homers, 13 doubles, 58 RBIs), Zion Rose (.315, 12 homers, 16 doubles, 63 RBIs, 30 stolen bases), Alex Alicea (.310, 30 stolen bases, 10 doubles, 47 runs scored), Tague Davis (.286, 18 homers, eight doubles, 50 RBIs, 45 runs scored)

Top pitchers:

Patrick Forbes (4-2, 4.36 ERA, 107 strikeouts), Ethan Eberle (6-2, 4.34 ERA), Tucker Biven (3-0, 4.19, four saves), Brennyn Cutts (3-1, 4.89, two saves), Justin West (2-2, 6.12), Jake Schweitzer (4-2, 2.15, three saves), Wyatt Danilowicz (0-1, 2.25, three saves)

Path to the CWS:

In an eight-team field littered with at-large bids and long shots, Louisville is one of the more unexpected entrants.

The Cardinals went .500 in the ACC, lost five of their final six conference series and faceplanted down the stretch of the regular season, dropping seven of 10 games — including a 10-9 setback at home to Bellarmine — heading into the NCAA baseball tournament. After a defeat to Pittsburgh in the first round of the ACC baseball tournament, the Cardinals landed a No. 2 seed at the Vanderbilt Regional.

Then they caught fire.

Louisville opened with an 8-2 win over East Tennessee State, followed with a shocking 3-2 victory over Vanderbilt — the No. 1 overall postseason seed and regional host — and polished off a regional sweep with a 6-0 win over Wright State. That gave Louisville a chance to host a super regional, and the Cardinals took two of three games from Miami, clinching a berth to Omaha with a 3-2 win in Game 3.

Battle tested:

While Louisville’s mediocre record in the ACC and late-season flop might cause one to dismiss their national championship capabilities, it is a battle-tested team. The Cardinals played 26 games against Quadrant 1 opponents during the regular season and won 12 — tied for the 10th-most in college baseball — while also finishing 7-4 against teams in the top 15 of the RPI.

Speed for days:

The Cardinals’ lineup has plenty of big swingers (see below), but they love to pressure defenses with their speed and aggressiveness on the base paths. They feed off Moore, their speedy leadoff center fielder, who is both a delight to watch and a pest for opposing pitchers and backstops. He leads the nation in stolen bases (51), ranks third in runs scored (83) and ranks third on the team in batting average (.353 ). The good news for Oregon State? Moore is coming off a disappointing super regional, during which he went just 2 for 14. The bad news? He still squeezed in three stolen bases. In addition to Moore, the Cardinals feature three more players with double-digit stolen bases on the season, including Rose and Alicea, who each have 30. Louisville ranks seventh in college baseball — and first in the CWS field — with 155 stolen bases. Anyone who watched rival Oregon overwhelm Oregon State with pressure on the base paths during a four-game regular-season sweep probably carries a little PTSD into the opening-round of the CWS.

Power, too:

The Cardinals’ lineup might not feature the depth and star power that Oregon State’s does, but it has plenty of punch. Five regulars are batting .315 or better and four have slugged 12 or more homers. Right fielder Eddie King, Jr. is a menace in the cleanup spot, bringing power (17 homers, 18 doubles) and a fearsome bat (.362 batting average), and he drove in the go-ahead RBI double in Game 3 against Miami. Third baseman Jake Munroe, a junior college transfer who is hitting .345 with 12 home runs, will no doubt be featured heavily on Oregon State’s scouting reports, too — he slugged three homers and drove in six runs in the super regionals. And while first baseman Tague Davis is feast-or-famine, pairing a team-high 18 homers with a team-high 56 strikeouts, he is dangerous.

Hard-throwing ace:

The Cardinals have announced that hard-throwing right-hander Patrick Forbes will start against the Beavers. The 6-foot-3 junior tinkers with four pitches, including a fastball that touches the high-90s and a power slider, and he’s been exceptional in the postseason. In wins over East Tennessee State and Miami, Forbes tossed 10 2/3 combined innings, allowing three runs on with six hits, while striking out 22.

He arrived at Louisville as a two-way player, but after spending two seasons as a part-time utility player and part-time pitcher, he has exclusively focused on the mound this season. Perhaps because of this background, Forbes can be erratic — he walked eight during those postseason wins and has issued 33 on the season — but he also has lockdown stuff. Forbes has 107 strikeouts in 66 innings this season.

—

Joe Freeman

|

jfreeman@oregonian.com

| 503-294-5183 |

@BlazerFreeman

|

@freemanjoe.bsky.social

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