Bill Oram: Seriously, who is going to beat the Beavers?

CORVALLIS — No sport loves clichés and poetically romantic metaphors for life more than baseball. No, sir.

An example would be: You have a chance until the final out. There is still hope as long as there is a strike.

Yes, indeed. I agree. How frequently does that actually work out?

Then, to remind you how these chestnuts get their start, the big, swinging Oregon State Beavers arrive. In a demanding game where every run came like the last drop of toothpaste from the tube, they were behind by two runs going into their final blow on Friday, but it did work out.

The Beavers’ unlikely 5-4 victory over Florida State in 10 innings was a defibrillator-level thriller that put them just one victory away from returning to Omaha and the College World Series. The saying is true. A chance always exists.

Who in the world is going to be able to take down these Beavers and keep them down, you ask?

Because the Gaels defeated the Beavers in the first game but weren’t good enough to defeat them twice, and it wasn’t Saint Mary’s in the regional last week. It wasn’t USC, as the Beavers outscored them 23-1 in two games.

On Friday, the Seminoles were definitely not the cause.

Despite holding the Beavers bats at bay for eight innings and leading 4-1 going into the bottom of the ninth, they were unable to do so. Not when Wilson Weber’s leadoff double was followed by two fast outs, seemingly leaving him stranded on second base.

Joining the few fans who had begun to leave, were you prepared to count the Beavers out?

“This season and this game are all kind of part of the same theme,” Mitch Canham stated.

Canham says that despite the Beavers’ constant struggles, he only sees excitement in the dugout.

Fear not,” he said. Not even the slightest bit of timidity. “”.

To be resilient is to be resilient. Similar to scar tissue, it grows. It develops into a routine. instinct.

According to Canham, “those moments tend to happen more and more.”. “”.

Friday went by quickly. A walk was drew by pinch hitter Bryce Hubbard. After that, Dallas Macias, who has been in a slump all season, pinch hit for Canon Reeder and hit a single into right field. Jacob Krieg’s bases were loaded.

The Beavers were within one swing of winning the game or tying it after Weber scored on a wild pitch to cut the lead to two.

Krieg remarked, “I just took a deep breath and kind of listened to the crowd and realized it’s bigger than me.”. “.”.

Krieg lost ground in the count. He was nearing his final blow.

In left field, he hit a single. Two runs were scored. tie game. . Extra innings. Suddenly, momentum changed.

You could have practically predicted the outcome of the game at that point: Second baseman AJ Singer, who had come close to hitting a home run in the seventh inning with a double off the top of the left field wall, hit a single over the center fielder’s outstretched glove as the Beavers loaded the bases in the bottom of the tenth inning.

Canham remarked, “We learn from our past.”. That is something that these guys never forget. We are capable of racking up a lot of runs at any given time. “.”.

So, once more, I ask: Who is going to defeat the Beavers? Who is stopping them with such assurance?

Belief is a drug. . It’s a superpower.

On Saturday, FSU’s left-handed ace Jamie Arnold will take on Oregon State. The Beavers’ chances of reaching Omaha would have seemed extremely remote if they hadn’t stolen a victory on Friday and capitalized on the glimmer of hope that one last strike offered.

Get it packed. Another wonderful season that came very close.

Instead, the coaches and players at Florida State were left in disbelief.

“It’s terrible,” coach Link Jarrett remarked. That’s about as bad as it gets. “”.

Omaha is just a victory away for the Beavers, who have two chances to punch their ticket.

They just require one.

— Bill Oram is The Oregonian/OregonLive’s sports columnist.