Oregon State seeks trip to Women’s College World Series

By Kevin Hampton
Corvallis Gazette-Times

Nailing down a Women’s College World Series berth has been an elusive goal for the Oregon State softball program.

There have been several close calls for the Beavers, who have frequently gone deep into the NCAA Regionals in their seven-year run of consecutive appearances, only to come up short.

Last year looked to be the breakthrough season. The Beavers rolled to a 43-16 regular-season record, climbed to No. 6 in the polls and stunned the softball world by tying for the Pacfic-10 Conference championship and landing the automatic NCAA Regional bid.

The team went in as the tournament’s No. 8 seed, but a 1-0 upset loss to Wisconsin-Green Bay in the first game proved costly, as the Beavers managed to push through to the championship round, but lost in the second game to DePaul.

Getting to the World Series is again the goal for the Beavers. But this year’s team won’t settle for just making the trip. With a senior-laden team that returns all but two players, the Beavers expect to go to Oklahoma City and make a little noise.

“We’ve been talking about it,” OSU junior pitcher Brianne McGowan said. “Our main goal is to get further than we did last year, which is the World Series, and win it all. That’s everyone’s goal right now.”

The Beavers return McGowan, who received All-American honors for going 36-10 with 346 strikeouts and a 1.80 earned run average. McGowan added eight home runs and knocked in 32 runs from the plate.

The Beavers have power hitters back in senior catcher Lisa Allen, who hit .319 with 12 home runs, 10 doubles, 34 runs batted in and a .606 slugging percentage and senior outfielder Adrienne Alo, who led the team with 13 homers and had nine doubles.

Sophomore outfielder Cambria Miranda returns after leading the Beavers with a .324 batting average. Senior infielder Vanessa Iapala hit .300 with 16 doubles and five homers and junior infielder Mia Longfellow hit .303 with 11 doubles and two triples.

“I expect this team to go out and play hard and play with a lot of experience,” OSU coach Kirk Walker said. “Hopefully, that’s going to translate into a lot of quality games. And if we’re playing quality games (and) we’re playing our game, then hopefully that will translate into the Ws.”

The 15th-ranked Beavers won’t have to wait long to find out where they are as a team. They head to Tempe, Ariz., this weekend for the Arizona State/Kajakawa Tournament and they will jump right in against top competition.

The Beavers take on No. 16 Northwestern and then play No. 21 Nebraska on the first day (Friday). If that wasn’t tough enough, ninth-ranked Texas A&M looms on Sunday.

“It’s going to tell us if we’re ready or not,” Longfellow said. “We need to come out on top and if we don’t, we’re just going to get (beat soundly). We really do have to be on our toes this whole season. We don’t have time to have a little lull in our season, we’ve got to come out bangin’ through the whole thing.”

Because of Oregon’s tendency to get a little wet in late winter and early spring, the Beavers are scheduled for 25 games on the road before coming home for a doubleheader against Portland State on March 18. The Beavers will travel to Arizona, southern California, Las Vegas and Fresno.

“We’re looking to come out and dominate. We know our strengths right now and our freshmen coming in are outstanding and they’re already a help to this team,” Longfellow said. “It’s just exciting. We’re ready for our first weekend out. I’m pumped up to play this weekend and I know everybody else is.”

Filling the holes left by Kelly Petersen and Alana Mendoza are freshmen DeAnn Young, Paige Lowe, Stefanie Ewing and Kellie Roberts.

Lowe, who plays second base, is the sister of University of Arizona all-American Caitlyn Lowe. Young has two brothers in Major League Baseball, Dmitri in Detroit and Delmon in Tampa Bay.

“I think they’re going to have a lot of impact,” Walker said. “One of the great things about it is I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of pressure on them because we have such an experienced, clutch and talented returning group. So I’m hopeful that’s going to allow them to find their own comfort level and play and perform like they’re capable, because they’re extremely talented.”

Alo said there might be more pressure on the team than in the past because of how the team finished the season.

She said some people might have looked at the regular season success as a fluke.

“Oregon State, we never get the respect with any sport,” she said. “Just winning the Pac-10, other schools across the nation probably just looked at it like, ‘Oh, for some reason they got it.’ But we’ve just got to come out and play our game. We’re strong, we’re good at every position.

“We’re pretty much picking up where we left off. We have some unfinished business out there.”