Brooks Hatch: OSU baseball Tuesday Comments
Coach Pat Casey said the 2009 Oregon State baseball team didn’t have a captain because no one merited the title. He’s hopeful that won’t be the case in 2010.
In other words, he’s looking for leaders a la Darwin Barney and Mitch Canham, the mismatched pair who helped guide the Beavers to the 2006 and 2007 NCAA championships.
“Leadership is a funny thing. Each guy has to lead in a manner that fits his makeup,” Casey said Tuesday at the team’s media day function at Gill Coliseum.
” In 2006 and 2007 Canham and Barney were our leaders and one was completely different than the other. They both had a way of doing it, and it worked well.
“Last year quite frankly the one thing we didn’t have was good leadership. A guy asked me why we didn’t have a captain; I said, ‘Because we don’t have a captain.’ Guys earn that. It’s like respect.”
Casey said the onus is on returnees such as Adalberto Santos, Stefen Romero, John Tommasini, Rob Folsom and other upperclassmen to take on that role.
“The game isn’t played on paper,” Casey said. “Some guys (lead), some guys don’t.”
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Casey said his main concern is replacing shortstop Joey Wong, catcher Ryan Ortiz and center fielder John Wallace, who gave the Beavers a solid core up the middle.
“I don’t know how you replace Ortiz offensively, he was a phenomenal guy to hit in the middle of the order,” Casey said. “Wallace had two national-championship rings, those things speak for themselves,” and Wong was tremendous defensively.
“Those are three [places) you have to defend and obviously we’re concerned about that. We’ll address those issues as we go.”
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The Beavers will play 34 home games, and three more in the state, if the weather cooperates. They had 22 home games in 2009 and 24 in 2008, including the three-game Pape Grand Slam at PGE Park.
In 2007, they played in five time zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, pacific, Hawaiian) in their first 17 games. This year, 15 of their first 23 games are at Goss Stadium, and 40 are in the Northwest.
“Any time you can play over 30 home games it’s great for the fans, great for our kids, and it keeps us away from traveling much,” Casey said.
Casey described the nonconference opponents (Hawaii 4, Tennessee 3, Maine 4, Portland 3, Utah 2, Seattle 2, Oregon 2, San Diego, UC Riverside, Arizona State, Utah Valley, Cal Poly) as “challenging.”
“We realize (opponents) will come after us,” he said. “(The schedule is) very, very tough, and we want it that way. To continue to be the program we feel we are, we have to play the best people we can play.
“Those are the challenges you have when you stretch yourself to be mentioned with some of the best teams in the country.”
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Finally, here’s the 35-man roster as issued by OSU on Tuesday (it could change if a walkon gets injured/can’t compete before Feb. 18):
PITCHERS: Fr. RH Breck Ashdown; fr. LH Matt Boyd; fr. RH Tony Bryant; so. RH Sam Gaviglio; so. RH Ryan Gordon; so. LH Dylan Jones; jr. RH James Nygren; jr. LH Josh Osich; jr. RH Greg Peavey; jr. RH Kevin Rhoderick; jr. LH Tanner Robles; jr. LH Kraig Sitton; RSo. RH Taylor Starr; RSo. RH Nick Stiltner; jr. RH Tyler Waldron.
CATCHERS: Jr. Travis Anderson; fr. Ryan Barnes; jr. Parker Berberet; fr. Andrew Susac.
INFIELDERS: So. Carter Bell; fr. Danny Hayes; jr. Keith Jennette; jr. Jared Norris; jr. Andy Quiring; jr. Stefen Romero; fr. Tyler Smith; jr. John Tommasini.
OUTFIELDERS: Sr. Rob Folsom; so. Blake Gibbs; jr. Brandon Hayes; RSo. Michael Miller; sr. Adalberto Santos; fr. J.J. Turbin; jr. Chris Viegas; so. Brent Warren.
As a scholarship player, Osich must remain on the 35-man even though he won’t play this season because of reconstructive elbow surgery. There is no disabled list in college baseball.
Rosters for Pac-10 series will remain at 25 players, but the NCAA-tournament roster has been expanded to 27. There is no roster limit for nonleague games.
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