The 2026 Oregon State baseball season is set to begin.

The No. 12 Beavers will open their season at 1 p.m. Feb. 13 against Michigan in Surprise, Ariz., competing in the first of four games at the College Baseball Series. Oregon State then plays Arizona, Stanford and Michigan again on consecutive days.

All games will be available to stream on FloCollege.com with a subscription.

This year marks the 12th straight year that the Beavers have opened in Surprise. Oregon State is 10-1 in the previous 11 season-openers there, with the only loss coming at the hands of New Mexico in 2023.

Against Michigan, Oregon State holds a perfect 5-0 all-time record.

OSU meets former Pac-12 foes in Arizona and Stanford. The three make up for nine of the last 12 Pac-12 champions dating to 2012.

It’s a weekend full of some high-quality competition, and the Beavers are eager to get the season rolling.

Oregon State‘s 2026 football schedule includes three games against Texas schools in September and its first conference game in the reconfigured Pac-12 on the road.

The Beavers will open Pac-12 play at Colorado State on Oct. 3, the first week of league play in the new Pac-12, the conference announced Wednesday night.

Oregon State and Colorado State last met in 2024, a 39-31 double-overtime win for OSU, which is 0-1 all-time in Fort Collins.

The Pac-12’s eight teams will each play a seven-game round-robin conference schedule between Oct. 3 and Nov. 21. The season’s final game, considered a nonconference game, is a home-and-home “flex” Pac-12 matchup on Nov. 28. The 2026 Pac-12 Championship game will be hosted by the first-place team on Dec. 4.

“We can’t wait to kick off the new era of Pac-12 football,” Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould said in a release. “Today’s schedule release is a major milestone on our path to launch, and the creativity behind our 2026 format reflects the strategic vision for what this conference will become. With national coverage across CBS Sports, USA Network and The CW, the new Pac-12 will debut on a national stage from day one.”

OSU’s first home Pac-12 game of the season is San Diego State on Oct. 10, with Washington State visiting Reser Stadium a week later, followed by a bye week.

Oregon State is 5-2 all-time against SDSU, with five straight wins since 2000. OSU and WSU split their season series in 2025 and OSU trails the all-time series 51-58-3. The Pacific Northwest rivals are also currently projected to play in Pullman to end the regular season as the nonconference “flex” game.

The Beavers travel to Fresno State in Week 9, with the possibility of a Friday night game. The date, either Oct. 30 or 31, will be determined before the season. The Bulldogs won last year’s meeting 36-27, and lead the all-time series 9-6.

Texas State will visit Corvallis on Nov. 7 for the first ever meeting of the teams.

Oregon State travels to Boise State on Nov. 14, then hosts Utah State on Nov. 21.

The Beavers lead the series with the Broncos 6-5, but lost in the 2024 regular season finale. OSU leads USU 3-1, but lost the 2021 LA Bowl.

My wife and I have lived in Portland some half-dozen times over the past two decades-plus, which also means we’ve left with the same frequency…while always visiting as much as possible. And there’s no better way to welcome ourselves back than with the Oregon Croissant at Ken’s Artisan Bakery in Northwest Portland, especially if it isn’t berry season. With blueberries, marionberries and hazelnut cream, it’s like a visit to the Portland Farmers Market within a world-class pastry.

The Oregon Croissant has been a stalwart item almost since Ken Forkish opened his eponymous bakery on Thanksgiving Day 2001. Once he developed his France-inspired croissant dough and hit the viennoiserie classics (butter, chocolate, almond, and ham and cheese), “I wanted one more that was unique to my bakery and that had local fruit in it,” he says. “And the shape that would hold it would be similar to a Danish.”

Initially, Ken’s made it with the same crème d’amande as an almond croissant. That was followed by the blueberries, and then, after the corners of the pastry are folded, an egg-wash. Individual marionberries are firmly pressed on top, so that they don’t roll off the dough as it expands and browns. There’s also a sprinkling of pearl sugar, adding sweetness—but not too much—and textural pop. The fruit is frozen, which allows it to be local and year-round, and also bakes up better (fresh berries would give off too much moisture and lose more of their shape).

But the Oregon Croissant did not achieve Peak Oregon until 2003, or possibly 2002—Forkish can’t remember exactly. That’s when he encountered Willamette Valley hazelnut growers Freddy Guys at…where else? The Portland Farmers Market.

Twenty-three or 24 years later, Freddy Guys’ hazelnut meal continues to be the basis for Ken’s hazelnut cream. “The result then fit the label Oregon Croissant,” Forkish says. “Oregon berries and hazelnuts into a unique pastry, with plenty of fruit in every bite.”

Forkish retired and moved to Hawaii in 2022, selling the business to longtime employees Randy Dorkin and Theo Taylor (Ken’s Artisan Pizza in Northeast was sold to different owners).

But not too much has changed at Ken’s since then. So it’s probably safe to say the Oregon Croissant will continue to be there for me as long as Ken’s Artisan Bakery is. “I can’t imagine it will ever leave the menu,” Forkish says. “It is unique to this bakery, and exemplifies the kind of place it is.”

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