SWING, BATTER, BUT NOT YET:

A fickle flip of fate favors OSU (Tom Shatel, 7/27/06, Omaha World-Herald)

Beaver Believer? Nah.

To paraphrase Jack Buck, not Dallas Buck, it's hard to believe what I just saw.

Oregon State loses its first game at the College World Series, 11-1 to Miami, and wins the national championship? No way.

The Beavers trot out Jonah Nickerson, the rubber band man himself, and he goes 100 pitches, on three days rest? And Nickerson throws 323 pitches in three starts in one week? And holds North Carolina to two runs, neither earned? Forget about it.

North Carolina attempts to steal home and the play fails because the batter ends the inning with a strikeout? You must be joking.

Oregon State's starter on Saturday night, Dallas Buck, comes in with two on and no outs in the eighth and the score tied 2-2 and gets out of the jam, including striking out the last two batters? You must be kidding.

The Beavers score the winning run in the bottom of the eighth when Bryan Steed, the backup second baseman, takes a routine grounder and throws the ball wide of first base, where Tim Federowicz - the all-CWS catcher - can't make the catch? Unbelievable.

And Kevin Gunderson, the little warrior, comes back from throwing 51/3 innings of relief the night before to record the final two outs? OK, maybe we believe that one.

And, finally, Oregon State wins its first national championship in a major sport at the CWS?

It was our pleasure to witness it.

I was there for most of it and it was quite a game, although people are possibly overemphasizing Steed's error and underemphasizing the opportunity that was missed when Benji Johnson of UNC swung at a pitch outside the strike zone while his teammate was rushing towards home plate for a likely run. That was the third out of the inning and I think much of the crowd instinctively sensed that it simply wasn't North Carolina's night.