Story below by Linfielder Rusty Rae in 7/6/2018 McMinnville N-R.
Rusty quotes Linfielder Ad Rutschman, who was a Linfield baseball ⚾️ player as a student and led Linfield to 1971 NAIA World Series title as Linfield head baseball coach. Ad attended all OSU home baseball games in Corvallis during the 2018 season.
An N-R photo of Ad appeared with this story in N-R. For this posting is a different photo. Provided by Ad and taken in Corvallis in late June 2018, photo shows (l-r) AJ Rutschman, Ad and Adley. Grandson
AJ lives in McMinnville. Grandson Adley’s hometown is Sherwood.
The Rutschman DNA: Beavers’ Adley Rutschman brings glow to grandfather Ad
By Rusty Rae, sports editor
July 6, 2018
McMinnville
News-Register/N-R
You’ll have to pardon Ad Rutschman’s glow these days.
As most know who follow Oregon sports – and Beaver baseball – the Beavers won the NCAA College World Series last week.
Rutschman’s grandson, Adley, named MVP of the series, earned the honor with stellar play as his team returned from the brink of elimination to capture the title. Adley is also the son of Randy Rutshman, the former Grizzly and Wildcat standout catcher.
“We (Oregon State) gave them the first game, and they gave us the second game, and the Beavers came out and won the third game,” he said.
“Going into the series, I didn’t see it quite the way it ended,” Rutschman added.
The Beavers lost the opening game of the series, 4-1, but battled back, winning the second of the three-game series, 6-3. They next slammed the door on the Razorbacks in the third game, 5-0, behind the brilliant pitching of freshman Kevin Abel.
Ad observed, “Early in the season, Kevin had trouble finding home plate. He’d look good and then get wild.
Toward the end of the season he found the consistency needed to win games. Before the CWS series with Arkansas, I said, ‘If this series goes to a third game, OSU will win,’ because I thought Abel would be better than Arkansas’ third pitcher.”
But Abel surprised Rutschman, as well as the Razorbacks, throwing a complete-game shutout after winning the second game with an inning of relief.
“I wasn’t sure how long Abel would last in the third game – but he just kept going. He hadn’t pitched a ton of innings during the season, so it wasn’t like his arm was worn out – still, it was a remarkable performance,” Rutschman said.
During the fateful second game, the Beavers trailed 3-2 in the top of the ninth inning, down to their last out. The Razorback defense was unable to make the final out on a pop fly in foul territory.
While that may have appeared a routine play, Rutschman said the error opening the door to OSU’s 5-3 win was more difficult than it looked on television.
“There is no question in my mind that the Arkansas second baseman called the ball. I’m not sure what actually happened, but most of the time there was a pretty good wind blowing at the field in Omaha – and that can really move the ball around.
“And perhaps the second baseman misjudged it – and then maybe he lost the ball. Perhaps he took his eye off the ball for a second just to see how close he was to fence. The ball will do strange things at times,” he said.
With the dropped third out fly, the Beavs went on to strike for three runs with two outs capturing the second game.
Added Rutschman, “Baseball is a game where you can do everything right and still be unsuccessful.”
The retired Linfield Athletic Director credited the Beaver team and its coaching staff for the inspirational success.
“To me, it seemed this was the team where everyone liked each other and were rooting for each other to be successful.
“And I think this is a team that continually demonstrated mental toughness. They were tough competitors – an intangible quantity for the team and something I credit to Pat Casey (OSU Head baseball coach),” he said.
As for his grandson, Rutschman, like most, feels astonished at his transformation from his freshman season, particularly as a hitter.
“Last year, among the starters on the team, Adley probably had one of the lowest batting averages. And to go from that to this year leading the team in hitting and having the top batting average of players in the PAC 12 – that amazes me,” he said.
Indeed, Adley set a CWS record with 17 hits, to accompany 13 RBIs. The proud grandfather added, “To have had that kind of success against the best players in the country – that blows my mind.”
Even so, according to all around Adley, he has remained true to his Rutschman DNA – a team first guy – whom Ad notes, “With all his success, he’s still a very humble kid – everything he does is team-oriented.”
Just another reason the senior Rutschman radiates the glow of his grandson’s success.
