Corvalis – Gavin Turley has been sitting at the door of the history of Oregon State baseball for weeks. But, really, it’s in the background of his mind for years.
When he was 7 years old, Turley slipped on his uniform of the small league the size of a pint before sunrise, Sidle in his parents’ room and pushed his father.
“Let’s hit!” He looks, jostling Jason Turley awake at 4:45 am
Later that year, while playing two levels against 9 -year -old children, Turley entered the plate with a place in the playoff series on the line, pointed out towards the exterior fence – calling on his shot like Babe Ruth – and hit a circuit to win the match. Turley then set up the Home Run record from Arizona High School high school and became the best -classified preparation of preparation to land at Oregon State.
As he landed in Corvalis, Turley immediately experienced media threshing, surrounding his first college in the stick and his first GOSS stadium.
So when he castigated a pair of circuits Thursday evening at Cal State Northridge, giving him 44 for his career and pushing him to one of the records of all the Beavers time, it was not so much a surprise that it was a coronation. As he got his feet on the campus, Turley seemed to become the king of the Oregon State circuit.
“I have struck circuits from a young age,” said Turley. “So, yes, it has always been in my mind. It has always been a huge goal.”
The goal went from the back of mind to the foreground last year, when Turley saw Travis Bazzana reach 28 during a ridiculous and record season. While the fans and baseball scouts of the major leagues have been amazed by the supernatural talent and the theaters of the future choice of recovery MLB n ° 1, Turley examined the approach of his teammate to strike and the way in which he prepared for the mental and physical milling of baseball. He was reasoned, mainly without emotion and focused on laser on daily development.
“Looking at this child every day was a large part of my career and how I did my job,” said Turley. “Because it is very analytical, very non -emotional. And I think that when you keep it like this, you can make adjustments on the fly. He did it very well, and I took note.”
He also took note of the last totals of the bazzana circuit and shrugged with figurative shoulders. Turley reached 33 years during its first two academic seasons, including 19 in the shadow of Bazzana last season. This left Turley only 12 timid record, well within its reach.
“As soon as Bazz set the record last year,” said Turley, “I said to myself:” Oh! Well, I’m not far behind. “I knew I was within range to beat him.
2025 Chase starts slowly
But Turley’s chase at home did not prosper immediately this season. After eight games, he only boasted one circuit. And after 23 games, he only had three.
Turley is no stranger to the falls – he fought a nightmarish skid in the first year – but this drought was not entirely unexpected. He came, in part, because Turley had started a new strike approach, which was focused on the use of all parts of the field. During his first two seasons, Turley tried to shoot each ground – it doesn’t matter where he crossed the plate – on the left side. This injured his average stick and contact rate, strengthened his withdrawal rate and made him a predictable striker.
It was too common to see Turley chasing the bales breaking in dirt and smell. And when he took the ball in the other direction, it usually led to soft contact and easy outputs.
During a release interview after the 2024 season, coach Mitch Canham and his staff showed Turley his analysis report in the middle of season, and the results were surprising.
“I knew that I barely used the right side of the field,” said Turley. “But the analysis report really made it apparent. At the bottom of the straight field line, I struck, like,. 091. In the central space of the center right, I struck .250. And then everyone on the left side, I hit, like, 1,400. So I really remember that it stood out.
Gavin Turley (1), Aiva Arquette (Middle) of Oregon State, Aiva Arquette (Middle) and Aj Singer celebrate the Home Run of Turley in the 6-0 victory of the Beavers against Sunday of Indiana Hoosiers, in Arizona. (Photo of Jerry Espinoza / Oregon State Athletics)Jerry Espinoza / Oregon State Athletics
Turley arrived in Corvalis with two goals: transport the beavers to another national championship and take another step to become a major feature. Well, the message of the coaches was clear – if he wanted to reach these goals, he needed to evolve.
“It’s just to share what we know, what adversaries know and what it will take if he wants to play long in the big leagues,” said Canham. “I don’t like to hide anything guys.”
Turley therefore devoted his offseason to refine his approach. He made a slight adjustment to his swing mechanisms, focusing on maintaining his frontage and preventing his hands from freeing himself too early. But most of the works have entered between his ears.
“I think the swing has always been there,” he said. “It’s no longer a thing of confidence in my swing to hit him behind the ball and put my eyes behind the ball.”
He tested his new approach during the COD Summer League and saw a progressive improvement, then remained with his process in the fall. When the Beavers played a double head against Gonzaga in Bend in October, Turley used his practice of pre-match striker to display his evolution.
It didn’t matter that a scout horde was in the stands and most players were looking for quick bullets inside to make a show. Turley wanted land that would show its growth.
“Everyone is there, including all scouts, and most guys are like” throw me in the middle so that I can hit the circuits “,” said Canham. “But Gav said,” Hey, throw me the middle. And it strikes the Oppo bombs.
Addition of Turley: “Each scout of the country knows that I can hit the ball at 450 feet when I want. I have proven that. Now, it is to show them that I am a full striker, that I can go in the other direction, that I have a swing that can do that and I can see the ball a little deeper.” The reflection process was: “ hey, what am I missing?
A complete package
And that has certainly evolved into a force.
Forty-seven percent of the Turley strokes this season have climbed on the right or right field, including 46% of its circuits. In April, Turley had a basic percentage of 1.410 on the balls struck on the right side. And when the sixth -row beavers struck a school record eight circuits in a victory at Nebraska last month, Turley exploded three, equaling the record in a single match of the OSU.
Two of them were affected in the center and one was hit on the right.
“I think it is time that he (strike A) Home Run-Lin,” said the second basic player in the OSU, AJ Singer, joking, after the Nebraska series. “He works Oppo all year round. He is fundamentally showing himself.”
Really, Turley appeared all season. The 6 -foot junior voltiseur 1 inch between Friday evening’s match at Cal State Northridge, hitting 0.356 with 11 circuits, six doubles, 41 products and 25 balls on bullets. He heads the team on average in the stick, successes and circuits, and is second in the points produced. And Turley’s withdrawal rate, which has always aroused criticism, has increased from 32.8% to 28.3% to 21.0% in the past three years.
When will you go back the last time you saw it a scourge to an unshakable rupture ball in dirt? The child who arrived in Corvalis with Raw Power turned into a professional appearance striker.
“Its raw power and its bat speed are unrivaled, in particular its setting,” said Canham. “I have never been with the guys who can do what he does with his frame. The way GAV can advance the barrel … He is extremely physical and in good shape and he can really make him move. He will be a big fever one day, without any doubt.”
But that will have to wait. In the here and now, Turley has a championship to continue and a home run record to overthrow.
Since this drought at home at the start of the season, he has exploded eight in the last 12 games, approaching the history of the State of Oregon. And even if it is something that Turley was aspired to achieve for a long time, he had a hard time wrapping his head around the idea that it is almost a reality.
Turley fell in love with Corvalis when he visited adolescence and he has long expressed his affinity for the program and his narrow tradition.
While he was trying to describe earlier this month what it would mean to become the King of the Osu run, Turley could not help warming up as he swung his way through three years of thoughts and feelings.
“It is really difficult to say without becoming emotional,” he said. “This is something that has always been there since my first year, like my pace or something else. But, above all, my state of mind is that I must agree with where I am today. It is very, very difficult to balance everything, that’s for sure, but the simple fact of being able to be the holder n ° 2 at Oregon State is a ginormous blessing and success in itself. Do so far.
“It was an absolute dream. I always try to leave an inheritance wherever I go and the disc would certainly be part of my inheritance. ”
– Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @Blazerfreeman | @ freemanjoe.bsky.social | Subscribe to Oregonian / Oregonlive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and best stories.
