NCAA Champs Play At BYU Monday

Two-time defending NCAA Champion Oregon State plays BYU's baseball team on Monday at 3 p.m. to start a two-game series in Provo.

OSU, ranked No. 25 last week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, bring a 10-6 record to Provo. Last weekend the Beavers took two of three from No. 16 Pepperdine as they opened their home season.

BYU improved to 12-10, going above .500 for the first time this season following a three-game sweep over the Air Force Academy and a two-game sweep of Kansas State, all in Provo last week.

"We are going to face some very good pitchers from Oregon State," said BYU coach Vance Law.

The Cougars are led by junior Kent Walton who is batting .348 and has a current 12-game hitting streak. OSU has two Utahns on its roster, freshmen Garrett Nash from Draper and Tanner Robles from Murray.

The probable pitchers for BYU are redshirt freshman Nelson Castleberry (2-2, 5.74) in Monday's game and junior southpaw Jake Wortham (2-1, 5.71) in Tuesday's game starting at 1 p.m.

The last ranked team to visit Provo was No. 28 TCU last season, who took two of three from the Cougars. Defending NCAA champion Wichita State came to Provo with a No. 5 ranking in 1990 and lost a pair of games to the Cougars. No. 10-ranked Cal-State Northridge took two of three from BYU in 1996 to win the Western Athletic Conference title.

Fans can download a A HREF coupon for entry into the BYU-OSU games by visiting www.byucougars.com.

Following the BYU-OSU games, the Cougars have a three-game non-conference set at Oral Roberts University and the Beavers return to Pac-10 action in a three-game set against Washington in Corvallis, Oregon.