Oregon State baseball’s Dax Whitney named Perfect Game National Pitcher of the Week after electric debut

Published 9:53 am Tuesday, February 18, 2025

By Joe Freeman, oregonlive.com

It took just one start for freshman Dax Whitney to earn his first college baseball award.

The Oregon State Beavers starting pitcher on Tuesday was named the National Pitcher of the Week by Perfect Game, a fitting honor for a player who dazzled in his college debut.

During a season-opening stretch of starting pitching dominance by the seventh-ranked Beavers (4-0), Whitney was perhaps the staff’s most electric performer, tossing five overpowering innings in a 16-0 victory over UNLV in Surprise, Arizona.

The 6-foot-5 right-hander entered the season with hype, labeled a future ace with “Big League stuff,” by teammates and coaches. And he backed up the talk.

Whitney recorded eight strikeouts and allowed just four singles during his impressive debut, breezing through the Rebels lineup with a four-pitch arsenal that included a high-90s fastball and live 12-to-6 curveball. He fanned the first batter he faced with a 97 mph fastball, then one-upped the feat, striking out the next UNLV hitter with a 98 mph heater.

It was merely a taste of things to come, as Whitney went on to record at least one strikeout in every inning he pitched.

He opened his outing by retiring the first five hitters he faced and ended his outing by retiring the final six hitters he faced, wowing a partisan crowd of 3,718 at Surprise Stadium — the largest college crowd in the history of the venue.

It was part of an impressive performance by the Beavers’ weekend rotation, which recorded 18 strikeouts and allowed just five hits over 15 scoreless innings.

Whitney’s next turn in the rotation will come Saturday, when the Beavers play Oklahoma at the Round Rock Classic in Round Rock, Texas. The Sooners (3-0) hit .398 and scored 36 runs in their season-opening three-game series.