Oral Roberts will travel to Clemson for a Super Regional tussle with the Tigers, the national top seed. They’ll roll into town on an 11-game winning streak, and have won 28 of their last 30 games. The Golden Eagles are a team loaded just about everywhere, and led the Mid-Continent Conference in ERA, batting average, and fielding percentage en route to a 17-2 conference mark, and a 41-14 overall mark.

The Golden Eagles relied on a three-man rotation of RHP Nick Jones (7-4, 3.67 ERA), RHP Chris Ashman (10-1, 2.02) and RHP Chance Chapman (5-1, 1.55) to win the Fayetteville Regional. Should any of them falter, ORU will turn to occasional starter RHP Daniel Greenwalt (6-2, 3.41), and RHP Erik Crichton (5-0, 4.17), who was the winning pitcher in the regional championship game over Oklahoma State. Their closer is RHP Sean Jarrett (7-1, 1.98), who used to be ORU’s ace pitcher. Jarrett is a dangerous pitcher who has great control, and the team feels very confident whenever he takes the mound.

Notice all the RHPs? ORU only has two LHPs on their roster, and only one, Taylor McIntyre (1-4, 7.42) has seen action for the Golden Eagles. However, the starting rotation of Jones, Ashman, and Chapman are dangerous enough to keep Oral Roberts in any game, and in most cases, win them.

Offensively, Oral Roberts will come into Clemson led by the hot bat of 1B Chad Rothford. Rothford, the Fayetteville Regional MVP, is a towering presence on the Golden Eagle team. At 6-5, 250, he stands out easily among the players. He also stands out at the plate, hitting .385 with 2 HR and 9 RBI during the regional. Even more impressive, he drove in all five ORU runs in Saturday’s win over Oklahoma State. C Andy Bouchie, who hit .416 during the regional, is a solid hitter, while RF Brendan Duffy leads the team with 14 steals (out of an attempted 15).

Besides being good on the mound, and at the plate, ORU will be tough as well thanks to a heightened confidence that comes from winning 28 of their last 30 games. This team believes it can beat anyone, at anytime. Although having lost to Clemson 8-3 last year to end their season, they feel excited as ever about facing the top-seeded Tigers. When Rob Walton told reporters after winning the regional that going to Clemson “…should be a lot of fun,” he was expressing the morale and spirit of this Golden Eagle team. They enjoy being on the diamond, and refuse to rest on any laurels or praise that slowly, but surely, is being heaped upon them. This is a team that is still very hungry to prove something, and for them, Clemson is the perfect place to further announce their arrival as a baseball power.

“We go into every season wanting to go to Omaha,” said Walton. “We’ll push and push every year until we get there.”

And if Clemson doesn’t take ORU seriously, they’ll be pushed out the door on the Eagles’ march towards Rosenblatt Stadium.