Oregon State University

2006 National Champions!

The Beavers beat North Carolina 3-2 to Secure Championship in Baseball.

What a ride. I haven't been updating the team because well, I guess I bored enough people with sports. That and I was lazy. But this was too special, too monumental not to post about. An hour and a half ago, the Oregon State Beavers baseball team went against all odds and captured a National Championship for the University. It is only the second national title in the history of the college, and first in a major sport (other was in 1961 Men's Cross Country).

Let's start with the beginning. Oregon State breezed through the rest of the regional I wrote about a half dozen or so posts ago. Move onto the Super Regional against Stanford. They were at home, so me and Stephen got tickets. They were so hard to get, selling out originally in about thirty minutes. The games were awesome, the Beavers beating Stanford in two games (best of three series) to send them to Omaha. The atmosphere was great, the crowd lively and into it, those who were not part of the 3,200 or so in the stadium found intresting ways to watch. Scaffolding with couches over the center field fence, ladders, buckets, whatever.

The Beavers get to the College World Series. They were there last year, dropping their first two games to leave empty handed. It looked like they might go two and out again (you have to lose twice to be eliminated) after losing 1-11 to Miami on the opening day. They played like crap. But then, their backs were against the wall and they FOUGHT. Two days later they played Georgia and won 5-3. They played Miami again and eliminated them after winning 8-1.

Onto Rice, who they had to beat twice in a row to reach the championship. They didn't even allow ONE RUN in that series. 5-0. 2-0. Onto the final series after playing their way through the loser's bracket. North Carolina won three straight to reach the final, so their pitching was rested and ready to go. Oregon State had played five games and were running on fumes.

Opening game of the final series, best of three games. North Carolina takes a heartbreaker 4-3. The Beavers backs are against the wall again. Onto the second game, were the Beavers fall behind 5-0 headed into the bottom of the fourth inning. The thing looks like it's over, reporters are changing their plane tickets to fly out that night.

Beavers score SEVEN runs in the inning. Go up 7-5. North Carolina is shocked, losing 11-7 and setting up a game three for all the marbles.

And the rest goes down in Beavers lore. Jonah Nickerson pitches a whale of a game and the Beavers squeek by the Tar Heels 3-2 for the title. What a day!!! I never thought I'd see Oregon State win a National Championship in anything. But wow, they did. And in the most awesome fashion you could imagine. Fighting and clawing their way back, never giving up even though most wrote them off.

So there you have it, Oregon State University... 2006 Baseball NATIONAL CHAMPIONS!