ROUND ROCK, Texas — When the Oregon State baseball team landed at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on Tuesday, the sun was beaming and the temperature was a cozy 65 degrees, a perfect combination for February baseball.
But by the time the Beavers scooped up their luggage, traveled to the team hotel and stopped by a local barbecue joint for dinner, the temperature took a stunning downward turn, plummeting roughly 25 degrees into the 30s.
“They told us to pack warm,” freshman right-hander Dax Whitney said. “So we knew it was going to be cold. But we didn’t know it was going to be this cold. We get here and it said: ‘Feels like 6 degrees.’ It was wild.”
An Arctic blast, including a biting wind, has wreaked havoc on the seventh-ranked Beavers’ Texas trip, forcing the cancelation of one game — a midweek meeting against the Houston Cougars — while threatening perhaps the biggest draw on the OSU schedule: A marquee Friday matchup against No. 2 Virginia.
It’s the first matchup this season featuring a pair of top 10 teams. (For streaming details, starting lineups and the pitching matchup, read this preview)
Officials have moved the first pitch up two hours (2 p.m. PST) in an effort to avoid the worst of the evening chill and, as of late Thursday night, the game remained a go. But there are no guarantees, and after the Beavers wrapped up a Thursday afternoon practice at Dell Diamond, more than one person connected with the team uttered the same six words:
“I hope we can play tomorrow.”
Oregon State coach Mitch Canham said the Beavers will go through their normal pregame preparations and a final decision on whether to play — or not — likely will be made by the coaches before the starting pitchers begin their pregame bullpen sessions.
The good news? Rice and Sam Houston played Wednesday night in Houston, where temperatures dipped to 34 degrees (and felt like 23 degrees). So teams have played under worse. Also, the forecast is calling for the wind to subside, which would make playing conditions much more palatable.
The conditions surely will be more favorable than many of the Beavers’ preseason practices, which often featured cold, rainy weather in what has been a harsh Oregon winter. But the Beavers played outdoors daily at Goss Stadium, skipping only one scheduled workout — because it snowed.
When Oregon State gathered before a frigid practice in Round Rock, Canham issued his players a directive about the elements: There are no elements.
“I said there will not be one mention of the temperature or cold,” Canham said. “You can talk about the wind. You can talk about the sun and how it affects the ball and how you’re seeing it. But we don’t talk about the cold, because it’s not a thing if we don’t believe it to be. Like, move on. There’s nothing. All it does is create complaining and we don’t do that.”
Assuming things proceed as planned at the Round Rock Classic, the Beavers will feature the same pitching rotation as last week in Surprise, Arizona, with Nelson Keljo opening against Virginia on Friday, Whitney following against Oklahoma on Saturday and Ethan Kleinschmit finishing against Minnesota on Sunday.
The trio was dominant last week in wins over Indiana, Xavier and UNLV, combining for 15 scoreless innings, during which they recorded 18 strikeouts and allowed just five hits. Whitney, a 6-foot-5 freshman right-hander, was so impressive — recording eight strikeouts and allowing just four singles over five innings — he earned Perfect Game National Pitcher of the Week honors. And Kleinschmit, a sophomore transfer from Linn-Benton Community College, was even better, pitching six no-hit innings.
It was a pair of electric OSU debuts.
And it makes one wonder: What’s in store during the encores?
We’ll find out this weekend … weather permitting.
“I never want to bag a game too early,” Canham said. “Too many times, I’ve seen guys cancel it the day before because of what the weather could be. And then you end up thinking you should have played. I want to go out there and play. I want to play this game (Friday) and I want to play Oklahoma. I want to play everybody. But we’ll have to wait and see.”
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | @freemanjoe.bsky.social | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
