A FAMILIAR RESUME.

Byline: Bob Clark The Register-Guard

OMAHA, Neb. - Oregon State, meet Cal State-Fullerton.

The Saturday game at the College World Series is a matchup of teams that aped each other in getting here after seasons that seemed headed nowhere.

Like the Beavers, the Titans (38-23) stumbled in the stretch, dropping five of seven, about when OSU (44-18) lost seven of nine. As it was for OSU finishing in the middle of the Pac-10, that slump left CSF in fifth place in the Big West.

Much as the Beavers knew winning the national title last season was no assurance of an invitation to this year's NCAA Tournament, the Titans awaited the announcement of the bracket knowing three berths in the College World Series in the previous four years was no guarantee of anything that morning.

`It was a sleepless night for me,' CSF coach George Horton said.

And on it goes. The Titans got in the field, as did the Beavers. Both teams went on the road for regionals, and came out victorious. That led each back home for the Super Regionals, where the Titans knocked out UCLA in two games, as the Beavers did to Michigan.

So here they both are, the Beavers trying to repeat as national champions, the Titans pursuing a fifth overall title and first since 2004.

`It's all about who's playing well at the time,' Horton said in evaluating the field. `You've got to maintain playing well and being lucky.

`Any of the eight teams, if they play well, could walk out as the national champion this year.'

And who would have thought that of the Titans in late May, when they finished the Big West at 10-11, much as the Beavers were 10-14 in the Pac-10?

`We were dead,' Horton said. `I was very anxiously sitting in front of a TV (on selection Monday), hoping the committee would deem us worthy of the opportunity.

`I would say we've taken great advantage of it.'

As has Titans third baseman Evan McArthur, who is hitting .450 in NCAA play with a team-leading seven RBIs. That after a Big West season in which the North Medford High graduate hit .241.

Yes, playing against the Beavers does mean something special to him.

`I'm excited to be playing them. I was hoping to meet them in the (World Series) championship series last year,' McArthur said. `It's exciting to get another opportunity this year on such a big stage.

`I don't think I have something to prove. ... I guess maybe there's a little bit extra motivation to perform well, but I'll try to keep that out of the way.'

McArthur actually ended up where he wanted anyway. His family lived in southern California until moving to Oregon prior to his first year of high school. As a youth, he served as a batboy for Cal State-Fullerton.

`My goal growing up was always to play for Fullerton,' McArthur said.

At North Medford, McArthur was a captain for two years, and league player of the year and an all-state pick as a senior. But he found little interest from colleges.

`I loved it (in Medford) but it wasn't the place to be for baseball,' McArthur said.

He attended Eastern Arizona Junior College for a year, playing shortstop when he wasn't the closer of the pitching staff. Driving home to Medford after that year, he stopped by Fullerton, `showed them my numbers,' and the Titans started recruiting him.

Those numbers included a .407 batting average, using wood bats, and all-American junior-college honors.

After a redshirt season with an injury, McArthur is a fifth-year senior, hitting .253 even with his late surge, with four homers and 31 RBIs after missing a dozen games early this season with a broken wrist bone. It might have been a .303 season in 2006 that prompted McArthur to be an 11th-round selection of the San Francisco Giants in last week's draft

Or his play in the NCAA Tournament. Like the Titans, McArthur has come on strong since being afforded an extension of the season by the NCAA selection committee.

`We thought we could make some noise in the (NCAA Tournament), but we were crossing our fingers to get that call,' McArthur said. `It definitely wasn't our record (in the Big West), it was the Titans on our chest and the teams we beat' prior to the league season.

Fullerton has gone 5-0 in tournament games, winning by a cumulative score of 40-10. In an analogy that probably won't please the NCAA, with its distaste for any mention of gambling, Horton said his team has been `kind of playing with house money,' because no one expected anything of the Titans.

`We were kind of under the radar for a change, and that was refreshing,' he added.

Not any more. Like the Beavers, they're in an elite eight grouping of teams playing for a national title.

`Now we have $4 million on the table,' Horton said. `I asked the guys, `Anybody nervous about putting all that on red or black?'

`They said no, they wanted to double it again.'

As would the Beavers, with another title. The quest for both begins Saturday against each other.

SATURDAY

Oregon State vs. Cal State-Fullerton, 4 p.m., Saturday. TV: ESPN. Radio: KKNX-AM (840).