CORVALLIS — Surrounded by family, friends and teammates in a jam-packed Goss Stadium players’ lounge, Adley Rutschman had yet to learn his fate when the clock hit 4 p.m.

Were the Baltimore Orioles going to take him with the No. 1 overall pick as most draft experts anticipated? If the Orioles passed, maybe the Kansas City Royals would, too?

A couple minutes before commissioner Rob Manfred announced the Orioles’ pick live on MLB Network, an anxious Rutschman received the most important phone call of his life to date. General manager Mike Elias was on the line, and Baltimore had made its decision.

At 4:12 p.m. Monday, the Orioles officially selected Rutschman — Oregon State’s switch-hitting junior catcher from Sherwood High School — with the No. 1 pick of the MLB draft. He is the third Oregon State athlete to be drafted first overall, joining Terry Baker (NFL, 1963) and Danny Mwanga (MLS, 2010).

“It was a rush of emotions, exactly what I expected,” said Rutschman, the 2019 Pac-12 player of the year. “It was unbelievable.”

Rutschman, a Golden Spikes Award finalist, is the 12th Beavers player to be selected in the first round of the MLB draft. The three-day, 40-round event resumes Tuesday (round three through 10) and concludes Wednesday (rounds 11-40).

Only three Oregon State baseball players have been top-10 selections: Michael Conforto (10th, 2014), Nick Madrigal (fourth, 2018) and Rutschman.

“What a moment for an unbelievable kid and an unbelievable player,” former Beavers head coach Pat Casey said on MLB Network. “This kid is the complete package.”

Rutschman, the first catcher to go No. 1 overall since Joe Mauer in 2001, fielded numerous inquiries throughout the morning and afternoon. The watch party gathering, which included superfan Drew Boedigheimer — a young heart transplant survivor — was ready to explode each time Rutschman’s phone lit up.

“I got a couple calls where I was like ‘it’s not the Orioles!,’ because everyone would get all quiet,” he said.

Eventually, it was the Orioles.

Baltimore is getting an all-around catcher who hit .411 as a junior with 17 home runs, 58 RBIs, a .751 slugging percentage and .575 on-base percentage. Twenty-six of his single-season school-record 76 walks were intentional.

In a season that included two grand slams and his second career inside-the-park home run, Rutschman’s signature moment may have come at the Corvallis Regional when Cincinnati chose to intentionally walk the slugger with the bases loaded instead of risking a potential bases-clearing double or worse. The Beavers still scored four runs in the inning, but Rutschman wasn’t allowed to energize the crowd with his bat.

“It is pretty surreal,” Rutschman said of that moment.

There have only been two bases-loaded international walks in MLB history: Barry Bonds (1998) and Josh Hamilton (2008). Both were issued with two outs in the ninth inning; Rutschman’s came with no outs in the seventh.

A strong defensive catcher from the time he set foot on Oregon State’s campus, Rutschman batted just .234 as freshman before garnering national attention last spring. He finished at .408 with nine homers and 83 RBIs, winning College World Series Most Outstanding Player honors after setting a tournament record with 17 hits.

After his dominant CWS run, many experts listed the 6-foot-2, 216-pound do-everything catcher as the No. 1 player available for the 2019 draft. Baseball America named him the best prospect since Bryce Harper.

Rutschman did his best to avoid the chatter.

“It was always running through my mind, but it was never one of those things where it manifested itself into how I played or anything like that,” Rutschman said. “I tried to keep it where it needed to be, and that was just kind of a side thought when I had some extra time to think.”

Rutschman, who also kicked for the Oregon State football team as a freshman, was drafted out of Sherwood High School by the Seattle Mariners in the 40th round. Three years later, he went 1,196 spots higher.

The signing bonus slot value for the No. 1 overall pick is $8.4 million.

Rutschman said he has not spoken with the Orioles about his first assignment or path to the big leagues.

“I have no idea,” Rutschman said of what’s next. “I’m still enjoying the moment and still have some school left to do. That’s going to be rough, but we’ll try to get through it.”

As a sophomore last spring, Rutschman watched Nick Madrigal, Trevor Larnach and Cadyn Grenier — a potential future teammate in Baltimore — become first-round draft picks. That group went on to capture the program’s third national title.

The Beavers came up short of the CWS this season, but Rutschman is proud to be forever intertwined with Oregon State baseball as he enters the next phase of his career.

“(Casey) always had a saying: make sure when you hang up that jersey for the last time, people remember who you are,” Rutschman said. “That was kind of one of those things that stuck with me, and part of the reason I played so hard was the attitude he brought to the field every day and how he wanted everyone to strive for greatness. That was one of the things I strive for too, to be the best I can be.”

— Bob Lundeberg for The Oregonian/OregonLive