Brooks Hatch

OSU sophomore right-handed pitcher Sam Gaviglio pitched only one competitive inning in fall practice, the last one at this past Saturday’s final scrimmage.

If that inning is a barometer of his sophomore season to come, however, Pac-10 batters beware: He looked free, easy, smooth and faster, and set the opponents down easily except for a bloop single.

He also appeared bigger and stronger. We’re told off-season workouts have added about 10 pounds to his frame and he looks appreciably sturdier than last year’s 6-foot-1, 170-pound freshman sensation.

“Sammy’s got confidence running out both sides of his ears,” OSU coach Pat Casey said.  “He goes out there and looks like, ‘Hey, you know what? I’m going to pitch, nothing is going to rattle me, I’m going to come after you, I’ve got good stuff, I’m confident and I trust it.’

“I don’t know if there’s anything bigger than that.”

Gaviglio was 10-1, 2.73 in 2009, with 55 strikeouts and only nine walks in 62 innings. He became OSU’s Friday night starter by season’s end, had key victories against Texas A&M in the NCAA tournament and against Stanford, Washington State, Oregon and Portland after entering the starting rotation, and made numerous freshman All-American teams.

He started twice for the Corvallis Knights before being shut down for the summer, and was 1-0, 0.00 in 13 innings, with 12 strikeouts and only one walk.

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Our fall practice roundup will appear online later tonight and in Wednesday’s print edition. Here’s a preview:

They are who he thought they were.

And they’re not … yet.

When fall practice started, Oregon State baseball coach Pat Casey thought the Beavers had ample pitching, a solid, versatile defense, and a productive offense.

They concluded eight weeks of workouts with a scrimmage this past Saturday. Afterward, Casey said the arms and gloves are there, but the bats need some work.

“It’s a work in progress, and it continues,” Casey said in evaluating a program that had 20 new players this fall, with another — football safety Jordan Poyer — arriving in spring. “The one thing I do feel strongly about is, the guys understand what we have to do to be the kind of team we want to be.

“We always talk about the difference between being good and being great, between playing in a good league and playing in the Pac-10. The Pac-10 is a great league. We can’t be average.”

Casey said OSU made strides in filling holes caused by the departures of two-time all-Pac-10 catcher Ryan Ortiz (Oakland) and shortstop Joey Wong (Colorado) to the pros after their junior years, and center fielder John Wallace, who completed his eligibility.

Potential successors Andrew Susac (C), Carter Bell (SS) and Adalberto Santos (CF) all did some good things in fall, even though Santos was limited somewhat as he continues to rehab a bad left shoulder. But he’s realistic.

“We’re not going to have someone to equal (Ortiz) right out of the chute; that would be a hard deal,” he said. “To have someone come in and say, ‘They’re going to be as good defensively as Joey Wong,’ that’s difficult.

“I would say, we’ll fill those positions, we’ve seen some options. Andrew did a lot of of things defensively we liked. Carter has experience and did a good job. He proved he can play shortstop.

“Jared Norris showed he can play the outfield” in addition to first base. “That allows Stefen Romero to play first in certain situations. We showed we have pretty good defensive flexibility.”

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Speaking of OSU baseball, analyst Kendall Rogers has ranked the 10 NCAA baseball champions from 2000-09 in this article on Yahoo sports. As is generally the case, the Beavers were undervalued, as the 2006 team was ranked No. 6 of 10, the 2007 team No. 9 of 10.

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I can’t remember if we linked this or not the other day, but speaking of the Corvallis Knights, here’s an awfully complete summary of the 2009 West Coast League season, and a look at the Top 25 prospects, in this story from PerfectgameCrosschecker.

OSU’s Susac, Gaviglio,  Ryan Gorton, Brent Warren and James Nygren are listed among the top 25 prospects, as is  former Knights first baseman  Taylor Ard of Mt. Hood CC and one of the Corvallis franchise’s all-time greats, shortstop Ritchie Jimenez, now at UNLV after spending 2008 and 2009 at Goss Stadium.

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Related posts:

1. Brooks Hatch: Tuesday update
2. Brooks Hatch: OSU baseball Tuesday
3. Brooks Hatch: Susac honored 9/1
4. Tuesday update 8/19
5. Brooks Hatch: Wednesday stuff