Oregon State Starting Pitcher Dax Whitney Collects Quartet of Honors
Dax Whitney might need a bigger trophy cabinet.
After tying a school record with seventeen strikeouts in one game last Friday versus Baylor, the Beavers' sophomore star pitcher was named National Pitcher of the Week by three different national baseball outlets, and Co-Pitcher of the Week by one other publication.
Perfect Game, the College Baseball Foundation, and the Golden Spikes Foundation each offered Whitney their full praise. The National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) split their weekly award between Oregon State's Friday starter and Arkansas pitcher Colin Fisher, who threw a one-hitter in eight scoreless innings Sunday.
Whitney's night against Baylor was one for the ages: he faced twenty-five batters, struck out seventeen of them, and allowed only two hits, one walk, and one hit batter. Of the last eleven Bears' batters he faced, nine went down on strikes. At the end of the night, Whitney tied a school record that has only been reached twice in Oregon State history. In 1994, Mason Smith struck out 17 Portland Pilots batters. In 2022, Cooper Hjerpe struck out 17 Stanford Cardinal batters.
Whitney, a sophomore from Idaho (Blackfoot, ID), was named a consensus All-American by the various national baseball outlets this preseason. He earned their respect after a phenomenal freshman season which featured a 6-3 record, 3.40 earned run average, 120 strikeouts, and 1.28 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched).
Whitney and the Beavers will next play Friday afternoon against Houston at 12 PM PST. Oregon State is slated to kick off its first of three games at the Frisco Classic, a weekend series in the greater Dallas area that will feature the aforementioned Oregon State & Houston, plus Alabama, and Iowa. Whitney is expected to start Friday's contest. So far this season, he has only allowed one run and seven hits across twelve innings of work.
Matt fell in love with radio during his college days at Oregon Tech, and pursued a nine year career in sports broadcasting with Klamath Falls' and Medford's highest-rated sports radio stations. He currently lives in McMinnville wine country and is excited to talk about the Beavers again.