College World Series: How blue blood Oregon State overcame Pac-12 collapse to return to Omaha as independent
The scramble to build a competitive schedule, grueling road trips and a team bus snafu highlighted Oregon State's road back to national title contention
By
Carter Bahns
•
6 min read
It was never going to be easy. The Oregon State baseball program -- despite its status as a blue blood and arguably the top operation in the sport this century -- faced an uphill battle from the moment the Pac-12 collapsed. When the Beavers stared elimination in the eyes five times this postseason, they were no strangers to adversity. Right at home with their backs against the wall, they rattled off victories in each of those do-or-die contests to punch their ticket to Omaha.
Superheroes. That's what coach Mitch Canham called his players ahead of their opening game at the 2025 College World Series.
"I really want more of the story to be out," Canham said. "I don't want walls around our clubhouse. I would like just pillars so people can see in and understand what they went through in its entirety this year and how special it really is. That was the prayer from the get go: Let's make this thing so challenging. Let's do something that no one else has ever done.
"That gives them the opportunity to go out there and transform college athletics."
Oregon State goes independent
The grueling road back to Omaha began well before Nelson Keljo threw the first pitch on Valentine's Day. The opening chapter in this team's story hit the paper in the summer of 2023 when eight schools, following USC and UCLA from the year prior, announced their intentions to depart from the Pac-12.
Only Oregon State and Washington State went homeless in the landscape-altering wave of conference realignment. Both universities patched together plans for the two-year grace period in which they control the Pac-12's assets and continue to rebuild the league. For baseball purposes, the Cougars packed their bags for the Mountain West as temporary members. The Beavers paved their own path and became the only Division I Independent for the 2025 season.
⚾️ Independents to reach NCAA Tournament since 2000
| Year | Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
2025 | Oregon State | TBD |
2012 | Dallas Baptist | Lost in regional |
2004 | Miami | Reached CWS |
2003 | Miami | Reached CWS |
2001 | Miami | Won national championship |
Going conference-less in an era of college athletics where media rights deals reign supreme, leagues boast as many as 18 teams and the chasm between the haves and have-nots only continues to widen was a major risk, yet it paid off.
Transfer portal ravages the Beavers
The transfer portal gutted Oregon State's athletic department following the Pac-12's demise. Football and women's basketball were among the hardest hit, and their results last season plummeted. The football team's win percentage dropped from 61.5% to 41.7%. Women's basketball miraculously returned to the NCAA Tournament but did so at just over .500 on the year.
The Oregon State baseball brand was so strong, however, that Canham used the portal to his advantage rather than his detriment and built a roster that posted a better record than the 2024 squad. In from Washington came shortstop Aiva Arquette, who turned down larger NIL packages because, in his words, he wanted to win. The projected first-round MLB Draft pick has been the best bat in the lineup and is a walking highlight reel defensively.
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Perhaps most importantly, Canham convinced nearly all of his most important players from a year ago to stick around rather than look for a new program, star outfielder Gavin Turley and stalwart catcher Wilson Weber chief among them.
"One of the biggest things I want to point out is with all of this going on with NIL, transfer portal, the amount of money that can be had in the draft, you name it, these guys all chose to be at Oregon State," Canham said. "That means a lot about who they are as men and where their values lay, how much they care about that place and that brotherhood. It warms my heart that I get to go be a part of that."
Beavers attack brutal, road-heavy schedule
In an anecdote that defines Oregon State's struggle the last two seasons, players and coaches recall earlier this season when the team bus never showed up on travel day. Players and coaches scrambled to find enough cars to drive themselves nearly two hours north to the Portland International Airport for one of their countless road series.
By the end of the regular season, the games they played on that trip accounted for some of the 35 for which they suited up away from Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. The Beavers held just 19 games, in contrast, at the nation's oldest continuous ballpark before the start of regional play.
"I've been saying it all year," said Freshman All-American starting pitcher Dax Whitney, who is set to take the mound in Friday's College World Series opener. "I think we're more prepared than anybody to go do this thing. We've been handling adversity all year, and we welcome it all the time. I think we're better trained than anybody in the country to go do this thing."
Oregon State's strength of schedule ranks No. 33 nationally, per D1Baseball. That is not too shabby for a program that did not have the luxury of playing consistent weekend series against power conference competition. Road battles with tournament-caliber opposition and a couple of preseason events with premier programs boosted the résumé and ensured the Beavers got enough tests in before postseason play. But it was a drag.
At one point, the Beavers even reached a mutual agreement with Portland to cancel one of their midweek matchups due to the scheduling demands. Canham's team had just arrived back on the mainland from a four-game swing at Hawai'i when it was scheduled tens of hours later to depart for a neutral-site battle against Iowa in Des Moines. Rather than play eight games in 10 days, Oregon State took a much-needed breather.
It worked wonders, as they won the first two games against the Hawkeyes and tied the last, shoring up a top-eight national seed in the process and guaranteeing home-field advantage through the super regional round.
Long wait for home games pays off
While teams across the nation competed in their conference tournaments, Oregon State held a three-day fan appreciation weekend of sorts with open scrimmages, autograph sessions and even a community movie night. Accustomed to their constant trips up and down Interstate 5 to the PDX airport and night after night in hotel rooms, the Beavers suddenly found themselves in the early stages of an extended home stand.
Only once in the regular season did Oregon State play more than four straight games at home. Opponents simply would not make the trek to Corvallis to play in one of college baseball's most intimidating parks. The NCAA sent four squads to the home of the three-time national champions for regional play, though, and another in the super regional round. The Beavers strung together eight consecutive games in their home digs.
Program legends Jacoby Ellsbury, Darwin Barney and Nick Madrigal were among those on hand over the last two weekends. Football coach Trent Bray was a ringleader of the constant chants and rhythmic clapping that echoed throughout the legendary grounds, nestled between campus buildings and an old railroad line. Record crowds packed both permanent and temporary seats on a daily basis as Oregon State inched closer to the College World Series.
"I've had a lot of other coaches come in and go, 'Wow, it's really like this out here, huh?'" said Canham. "Hearing coaches that are coming from the East Coast. Butch Thompson said that when he came in a couple years ago. Link (Jarrett) said it when he was here. 'Wow, this place is pretty special.' There's no doubt about it. That's why I wish everyone could live it for a little bit of time."
The Beavers played the maximum number of games across the Corvallis Regional and Super Regional, needing to bounce back from a loss in the regional opener and a defeat in Game 2 of the super regional series with Florida State. They won the ones that mattered most, like they did in 2006 and 2018 when they became one of just two teams this century to lose their College World Series opener and proceed to win the national championship.
It is almost as if Oregon State is most comfortable when the adversity is at its strongest. There is a good chance it will strike again in the final stanza of the Beavers' hunt for national championship No. 4.
Frankly, they wouldn't have it any other way.
