Canham: ‘Looking at what we have back and coming in … I’m excited’
It can’t be that time already, can it?
Ah, but it is. Oregon State begins fall baseball practice on Thursday, Sept. 9.
Summer has flown by, and the fall portion of the second full season of the Mitch Canham era in Corvallis is around the corner.
The 2022 campaign will be one of redemption for the Beavers, who fashioned a credible 37-24 record (16-14 in Pac-12 action, tied for fifth) and came within whisker of advancing to a Super Regional in 2021.
On Kevin Calabro and Jordan Kent, the sports broadcasting scene in Portland, Ime Udoka, James Allen, the Cambia Portland Classic and much more …
Knocking it around on a potpourri of sports topics …
• Kevin Calabro’s return to the broadcasting booth with the Trail Blazers is not a done deal.
The Blazers, who let Jordan Kent go last week as their TV play-by-play announcer, have extended an offer in principle to Calabro, who served as their TV play-by-play man from 2016-20 but gave up his job during the COVID-19-interrupted 2020 campaign.
With Rich Dorman, talking OSU pitching on eve of Fort Worth Regional
If Oregon State is to rise up and claim the Fort Worth Regional, its pitching will have to be a major part of the story.
Statistically, at least, the No. 2 seed Beavers (34-22 overall, 16-14 in Pac-12 action) take the league’s best pitching staff into Friday’s 11 a.m. Regional opener against No. 3 Dallas Baptist (37-15).
“As a whole, we competed pretty well and gave ourselves a chance to win a lot of games,” pitching coach Rich Dorman said Thursday night on the eve of the Beavers’ opener in Fort Worth. “At times we did a really good job, and at times we didn’t.”
OSU led the Pac-12 in most pitching categories through the regular season, including ERA (3.42, eighth nationally), opponents’ batting average (.217), walks and hits per innings pitched (1.2, eighth nationally), hits allowed per nine innings (7.1, fifth nationally) and strikeouts per nine innings (10).
Going from A to Z with Mitch Canham talking Beaver baseball …
Mitch Canham is upbeat as he prepares for Christmas with his wife, Marlis, and their children, eight-year-old Mack and six-year-old Mya. He’s a little bit healthier, too.
Oregon State’s second-year baseball coach had his left knee scoped two weeks ago.