Abel, Rutschman lead the way for Oregon State, clinch school’s third CWS title
Oregon State has been comfortable being uncomfortable in this year’s College World Series. They faced elimination in every game until the Championship Series following their opening game loss to North Carolina. They then lost the first game of the Championship Series, putting them back on the brink of elimination. In Game 2 of the Championship Series, Cadyn Grenier was down to his last strike and the Razorbacks were inches away from their first College World Series title. That’s just how Oregon State seemed to prefer things – uncomfortable.
Riding the momentum off of their ninth inning rally to force a Game 3, Oregon State slashed the Razorbacks on both sides of the field with record performances from Adley Rutschman and Kevin Abel to win their third College World Series title.
Abel, the 6-foot, 19 year-old freshman, delivered a record performance to cap off his tremendous series. With the Game 3 win, he became the first pitcher to win four games in a single College World Series. He won his fourth in style, only giving up two hits and allowing no runs along with 10 strikeouts. He is only the fourth pitcher in College World Series history to throw a complete game shutout in the Championship, and it was against an Arkansas team that had not been shutout once in their 68 games.
Oregon State picked up right where they left off in the bottom half of the first inning. With runners on the corners, Rutschman hit an RBI-single to left field to put the Beavers up 1-0. A throwing error later in the inning by Arkansas’ Casey Martin would bring in another run for Oregon State giving them a 2-0 lead heading into the second inning.
Arkansas had one real opportunity in the third inning to put some runs together after Grant Koch led off the inning with a double. After an Eric Cole walk, and a Casey Martin single, the Razorbacks had the bases loaded with just one out and things were looking promising. Kevin Abel responded with a key strikeout to put Heston Kjerstad, one of Arkansas’ key hitters, on the bench. Then a Luke Bonfield pop out ended the little momentum the Razorbacks had.
In the bottom of the third, Adley Rutschman hit another RBI-single that brought the Beavers’ lead to 3-0. Rutschman led all players in the College World Series with a total of 13 RBI’s. The last RBI tied him for second all-time RBI’s in a single College World Series. His 83 RBI’s on the season are also a school record.
Rutschman would start the fifth inning for the Beavers with a single. Tyler Malone would follow that with a walk, and then a wild pitch advanced them both into scoring position. Michael Gretler would hit a sacrifice fly into right field to bring in Rutschman, making the score 4-0.
All the while, Abel was dealing for Oregon State. Oregon’s bats weren’t putting up the numbers they usually do, but it didn’t matter with the way the freshman was pitching. After giving up two hits in the third inning, he would retire the last 20 batters of the game and give Arkansas no chance to make a run.
Oregon State would score one more insurance run in the eighth inning off of a Zak Taylor RBI-single, and would hold off Arkansas 5-0 to secure the school’s third College World Series title in their three appearances in the Championship Series. Adley Rutschman went 3-4 with 2 RBI’s, and Kevin Abel threw a complete game shutout while only giving up a pair of hits for the Beavers.
Adley Rutschman was awarded the College World Series Most Outstanding Player award. Rutschman batted .567 with 13 RBI’s with a pair of home runs in the College World Series and had an .649 on-base percentage – the second-highest in the Aluminum Bat Era. Oregon State became the 12th team in College World Series history to lose their opening game and come back to win the title, and they are the third team to do it more than once (2006).
Written by Matt Kirkle
