Beavers ready for their run at history.

Byline: From The Register-Guard and news service reports

OSU SOFTBALL

The eighth time was the charm.

Oregon State's highly successful softball program is amid its eighth consecutive postseason run.

But this season, for the first time in history, the Beavers, ranked No. 7 in the nation, have played themselves into the NCAA Women's College World Series at Oklahoma City.

Seeded seventh in the eight-team, weeklong event, Oregon State tangles with a familiar foe in today's tournament opener - second-seeded and Pac-10 Conference comrade Arizona.

The game is scheduled to be televised on ESPN2 at 10 a.m. PDT from ASA Hall of Fame Stadium.

The game also is scheduled to be broadcast on radio station KTHH-AM (990) as well as on www.osubeavers.com.

The Wildcats, seeded second in the WCWS and ranked third in the country, are 49-10, have won 15 of their past 16 games and are making their 18th World Series appearance in the past 19 years.

"Arizona's obviously got great experience in the College World Series," Oregon State coach Kirk Walker told the Corvallis Gazette-Times newspaper. "They're a phenomenal team."

Despite trailing the series with Arizona 71-10, the Beavers have split with the Wildcats in the past six games.

Oregon State owns a 43-14 record, a .286 team batting average, the program's highest since joining the Pac-10 in 1987, and is armed with junior right-handed pitcher Brianne McGowan, 29-7 this season with 249 strikeouts in 252 1/3 innings and a 1.30 earned run average.

Cambria Miranda, a sophomore outfielder, has scored a OSU single-season record 52 runs and tied a single-season mark with 16 homers.

Half of OSU's 14 losses were by one run. When the Beavers score first in a game, however, they are 31-3.

"We feel like we're going into the College World Series with nothing to lose," said Walker, whose team made it into the WCWS by taking a best-of-three Super Regional series from California last weekend.

The Beavers are taking aim at their first national championship in a women's sport. The only other OSU national title came in 1961 when the men's cross country program won the NCAA crown.

Arizona, which won its sixth national title in 2001, is led by five players with batting averages higher than .300, led by Caitlin Lowe's .430.

Senior All-American pitcher Alicia Hollowell has a 27-4 record with 356 strikeouts and a 1.00 ERA.

The Wildcats have hit 60 home runs and stolen 69 bases. They led the Pac-10 with a .317 team batting average, were second in team ERA at 1.18 and shared the conference lead in fielding percentage with Stanford at .979.

The Oregon State-Arizona winner plays the winner of the Arizona State-Texas game on Friday. ASU is seeded sixth and Texas third.

Fourth-seeded Northwestern plays fifth-seeded Alabama and eighth-seeded Tennessee tangles with No. 1-ranked and top-seeded UCLA in the other first-round games.