Baseball players honored at halftime with jewelry from championship run

Baseball players honored at halftime with jewelry from championship run
Corvallis Gazette Times, OR
By Cliff Kirkpatrick
Corvallis Gazette-Times

CORVALLIS — Five months after winning the College World Series, the national championship bling arrived.

The Oregon State baseball team received the rings that go with being the best in the spring of 2006. The players and coaches were presented with them Saturday afternoon at halftime of the homecoming football game in Reser Stadium

“It’s an exciting weekend, and it’s nice to see everybody again,” shortstop Darwin Barney said. “We’ve been waiting for this for a long time, just to finally get the rings.”

The celebration went beyond the ceremony. There was a banquet for the players Friday night; they were involved in the morning homecoming parade and held an autograph signing session before the football game.

All the players except for pitcher Dallas Buck returned for the presentation, even though many of the key members graduated or turned pro early.

Nine players, a school record, were selected in the Major League Baseball amateur June draft, and eight signed pro contracts. Two more signed as free agents.

“This is what we were looking forward to, was the rings,” said Chris Kunda, the second baseman from Philomath who began his pro career during the summer. “It’s nice to see the guys again and talk to them. It’s kind of hard when you go from the College World Series to playing all summer. Now we get time to reflect together.”

The team was honored for winning the Pacific-10 Conference title and cruising through an NCAA regional tournament and Super Regional series over rival Stanford to earn the program’s third trip to the College World Series.

OSU was one of eight teams in the double-elimination tournament in Omaha, Neb. It didn’t look good early, losing to Miami in the first game, 11-1.

After a day to recuperate, the Beavers rallied to defeat Georgia, Miami and Rice twice in four days. That set up a best-of-three series with North Carolina.

The Beavers dropped the first game again, but won the next two to claim the program’s first national title. It was the university’s second NCAA national title.

“It’s good to remember what we’ve done, and now we can move on,” Barney said. “This gives us a chance for closure and for us to put into prospective what we’ve done. It’s just now starting to settle in.”