So, let's be honest: I was not hanging out with the full moon in Keizer, home of the $8 Volcanoes Burger and the two-inning beer line, to write about Oregon State's Dylan Davis.

But baseball being what it is, there was the Beavers' starting pitcher -- and clean-up hitter -- limping back into the batter's box in the bottom of the 7th Tuesday night, having just fouled a 3-2 pitch off his left foot.

And because the best team in college baseball and one of the worst, the University of Portland, were tied 2-2, a Salem resident named Lisa leaned into my left ear at that auspicious moment and screamed, "Man up!"

Davis got the message: "3-2. Bases loaded. Two out. You think firm, and adjust," the Redmond, Wash., junior said. "I got a hanging slider."

And he lined it over the Big Mac in left field, lifting Oregon State to its 12th straight victory going into the weekend's pivotal series with Washington.

When I asked OSU head Coach Pat Casey afterwards if he worried Davis was focused on that sore instep, Casey said, "The best thing about hitters is, I don't want them to think."

Pitchers? You hope for a little more. Which brings us to the weekend ramble of Ben Wetzler.

Ben Wetzler

Early Saturday morning -- six hours after running his record to 9-1 and lowering his ERA to 0.94, the best in the land -- Wetzler was arrested in Corvallis for breaking the window of a Corvallis home.

Officer Taylor Lawrence of the Corvallis Police Department reports the 22-year-old Wetzler was so intoxicated that he wrongly believed the house was his own.

The prevailing opinion in the stadium beer line -- I held out until the 6th inning -- was that no matter how drunk most of us got in college, we always recognized the path to our dorm room or the shape of the front door.

And one suspects that when Wetzler asked the Chicago Cubs' Darwin Barney at the Diamond Dinner in January how a senior might best influence a young team, a Saturday black-out was not at the top of Barney's list.

Baseball being what it is, the untimely appearance of a mug shot in the stretch run to the College World Series in Omaha can be painfully distracting.

Casey being who he is, Wetzler might keep one wary eye out for the woodshed. As a major-league scout told me Tuesday, the Beavers "always compete in a way that surprises me. They always find a way to dig deep, or whatever the cliche is. Pat's a fiery competitor. He doesn't have much patience for failure ... and his players take that attitude."

In the shadow of that full moon and the Beavers' 39th victory, Casey was refreshingly candid and diplomatic in addressing Wetzler's failure of leadership.

He apologized for not speaking to reporters after Sunday's 11-2 victory over UCLA, when he "didn't think it was appropriate to speak on Ben's behalf."

Casey said Wetzler would be disciplined. He confessed his personal dismay: "To say I'm disappointed is an understatement. There's probably not a minute that's gone by over the last four or five days that I haven't thought about it."

He was insistent that Oregon State demands more than this: "All student-athletes are held to a higher standard. We expect them to be role models. Role models for the university. Role models for the program."

And he found the right balance in weighing the bad news from the weekend and his enduring sense of a pitcher who wanted one last year of his advice.

"I've always said being a coach is like being a parent," Casey said. "You want kids to make every good decision When they don't do that, you still love them. I still care deeply for Ben Wetzler."

I trust that will chasten Wetzler when he is disciplined, and inspire him when he returns to the mound.

-- Steve Duin