Beavers Win!!!

Let's take a break from the World Cup action for a bit to extoll the Oregon State Beavers' win in the College World Series. In the championship round OSU had to win two in a row after dropping the opener to North Carolina and the Beavers did. The team was down 5-0 in the second game and came back to win and squeaked out the win in game 3 last night.

I'm not the biggest baseball fan but this was compelling baseball. First, I am from Oregon and spent a part of my childhood in Corvallis where OSU is located. Second, OSU was a big underdog in this matchup. UNC had two first round draft picks on the pitching staff who threw some nasty stuff. OSU really doesn't have much power and grinds out wins in smallball style off of some pitchers who are hard to hit. Third, OSU had faced elimination in six games during the CWS and won all six games under that pressure. Lastly, there were some heroic pitching efforts on the part of OSU. Kevin Gunderson, the OSU closer, pitched 5 innings of relief in game 2 and saved game 3. Even more impressive was the performance of Jonah Nickerson. He started 3 games in the CWS and three over 300 pitches and had two victories. Incredible. I think his arm might fall off. Either that or he has a rubber arm. Nickerson was the MOP of the CWS and deservedly so. That's him below. Congratulations Oregon State!