Now in my second season watching Oregon State softball, I was pleasantly surprised to see the Beavers scoring so many runs last week at the Kajikawa Classic down in Arizona. Last year, OSU struggled at times to push runs across the plate.
But listen to this … the games in Tempe represented the single-best five-game offensive stretch in team history. OSU scored 59 runs in 31 innings, including 10 homers (two grand slams) and a .482 batting average.
The 22 runs in the season-opener against BYU are the most in program history and the 16-run second inning is a school record as well. In fact, sports information director John Cantalupi discovered that the five homers in that second inning ties an NCAA record (just the fifth time ever that it’s been done). And the 16 runs, that’s good for sixth for any one inning in NCAA history.
The 11-3 victory over Nebraska on Saturday was significant as well. It was the school’s first victory over a top 20 team on the mercy rule since a 9-0 win over No. 17 Washington in 2005.
Those offensive numbers are crazy. It will be fun to keep an eye on the OSU bats this season. I’ll be writing more about that later.
