For those who were afraid of UCLA

I think that Gonzaga, LSU, and UCLA present more match-up problems with Oregon State, namely all are well-coached and play good defense. 

Minnesota owns the nation's 10th-best ERA and the 16th-best BA.  Oregon State has played three teams with a lower ERA: Stanford, UCLA, and Gonzaga.  However, the Gophers represent the best-hitting team that Oregon State has played all year. 

Up until this weekend, the best-hitting team that Oregon State played all year was Nevada.  Against Nevada, Oregon State won both games.  The first on an 11th-inning error.  The second on 10th inning walk-off inside-the-park home run for Adley Rutschman.  Even Heimlich was tagged for two runs in 1 2/3 innings of work against Nevada.

Batting Average:
3.   Oregon State .317
16. Minnesota      .302

Fielding percentage:

12. Oregon State .979
44. Minnesota     .976

ERA:
10. Minnesota     3.11
23. Oregon State 3.45

A better pitching statistic:
WHIP:
5.   Minnesota     1.18
9.   Oregon State 1.21

The only team that Oregon State played with a better WHIP than Minnesota was Stanford.  The Beavers beat the Cardinal 16-2 combined in the first two games but blew a five-run fifth-inning lead to lose 9-6 in 10 innings.  Abel only allowed two runs, but Mulholland uncharacteristically allowed four in three innings for the loss.

The Big Ten does not play as many conference games.  Minnesota only played 22 conference games.  Oregon State played 30.  Utah's winning percentage was .267.  Only Northwestern and Penn State had worse winning percentages in conference and Minnesota did not play Northwestern.  No team in either conference had a worse winning percentage overall than Utah.  The Utes had a .291 winning percentage overall.

In the regular season, Minnesota missed #3 Michigan, #4 Illinois, #9 Maryland, and #12 Northwestern.  Minnesota won every conference series.  Minnesota swept #2 Purdue on the road, #5 Indiana in Minneapolis, #11 Rutgers on the road, and #13 Penn State in West Lafayette.  Minnesota's four conference losses were to #6 Iowa in Minneapolis, #7 Ohio State on the road, #8 Michigan State in Minneapolis, and #10 Nebraska on the road.

In the Big 10 Tournament, Minnesota swept #8 Michigan State, 3-2; #4 Illinois, 3-0; #7 Ohio State, 8-1; and #2 Purdue, 6-4.

In non-conference play, Minnesota split the opening weekend, beating Kennesaw State and losing to Georgia State and Georgia Tech on the road.  The Gophers finished 1-2 in the Pac-12/Big Ten Challenge in Minneapolis.  Minnesota beat Arizona but lost to Washington and UCLA.  Minnesota also lost to Creighton at home.  The Gophers won every other weekend series.

Among common opponents:
MINNESOTA 3 - Arizona 2 (Deason)
Washington 6 - MINNESOTA 4 (Micheles/Knowles)
UCLA 6 - MINNESOTA 1 (Pettway)
Minnesota 5 - NEBRASKA 1
NEBRASKA 8 - Minnesota 2 (Waldron)
Minnesota 2 - NEBRASKA 0
Minnesota 11 -OHIO STATE 1
Minnesota 2 - OHIO STATE 1 (Feltner)
OHIO STATE 6 - Minnesota 5
Minnesota 8 - Ohio State 1 (Omaha) (Pavlopoulos)
MINNESOTA 3 - UCLA 2 (Pettway)
MINNESOTA 13 - UCLA 8

Oregon State 9 - Nebraska 1 (Surprise) (Waldron)
Oregon State 10 - Ohio State 8 (Surprise) (Feltner)
Oregon State 10 - Nebraska 3 (Surprise)
Oregon State 6 - Ohio State 1 (Surprise) (Pavlopoulos)
OREGON STATE 16 - Washington 1 (Knowles/Micheles)
OREGON STATE 5 - Washington 2
Washington 8 - OREGON STATE 4 
Oregon State 6 - ARIZONA 2 (Deason)
ARIZONA 15 - Oregon State 4
ARIZONA 6 - Oregon State 5
OREGON STATE 2 - UCLA 0
OREGON STATE 4 - UCLA 1 (Pettway)
UCLA 4 - OREGON STATE 1

Overall:
Minnesota 8-4 59-41
Oregon State 9-4 82-52

Against the same starter:
Minnesota 4-3 23-26
Oregon State 6-0 51-14

I'm not sure I understand the concept about being concerned about a team (UCLA), and then being relieved when the Beavers will face the team that beat them (Minnesota).  "Whew!  Thank goodness we don't have to play UCLA.  We get to face the guys that whipped them!"

Not addressing 'being relieved' about anything. Just looking at matchups and stats ( independent of talking heads ), to form an opinion as to how we might perform.
I hate it when the announcers and pre- game analysts go on and on about a particular team's otherworldly pitching and hitting prowess, and how their first game starter routinely hits 97 on the radar gun, has 150 more strikeouts than innings pitched, and that their first 7 hitters in the lineup all have 20 homers or more, while hitting a combined .487.
Then, you actually look stuff up and, lo and behold - the team era is .11 lower than ours and the team batting average is 20 points below ours, etc,,etc,, etc !

In my mind, Oregon State is a lot like Billy Sole in "Predator."  "I fear no man."  I do not fear any team that Oregon State plays.  The only potential Predator in the Tournament is Florida.

Nathan Bedford Forrest once said that to win battles, you need to "get there first with the most men."  The overwhelming majority of NCAA baseball games are decided before the first pitch is thrown with superior recruiting, superior development, superior training, and superior game-planning.  I like watching Oregon State because Casey out-thinks pretty much every other coach in the game.  The Beaver teams turn into machines that are very difficult to stop, when almost everything clicks.  It was fun watching the LSU games, because of the general inevitability in the routs that unfolded before our eyes.  Two innings in, it seemed obvious that Oregon State was going to torch LSU.  It got sticky in spots, but the superior Oregon State machine eventually chewed up LSU.

(This is what is so infuriating about the Greg Street CWS game in 2017.  Oregon State got an irregular strike zone, which erased Oregon State's advantage in development, training, and game-planning.  The game devolved into a dumb gorilla ball baseball game.  I have found that games that turn out that way rarely favor the Beavers.)

In my mind, teams that match up well against Oregon State are teams that have three good starters, teams that can play small ball, teams that do not strike out a lot and put the ball into play, teams that grind, and teams with good fundamentals.  Basically, in my mind, the trickiest teams are teams that are slightly worse versions of Oregon State.

In 2006 and 2007, for example, I cheered on North Carolina in the other bracket, because they looked like a team that Oregon State matched up well against, a team with poor fundamentals with players playing out of position and a team loading up the roster with big bats and little else, a team that routinely sacrificed fielding for a big bat.

In last year's College World Series I was rooting to play Florida State, because they looked a lot like North Carolina in 2006 and 2007, a team that could easily turn a bad pitch into a home run but a poorly-coached team with bad fundamentals that Oregon State could out-work and out-think.

Gonzaga and UCLA are slightly worse versions of Oregon State.  Minnesota may have matched up well with UCLA, but I think that Minnesota presents Oregon State with fewer challenges than UCLA.

As far as Minnesota "whipping" UCLA, Pettway threw seven innings of four-hit ball and posted a 2-1 lead in the eighth.  Pettway threw exactly 100 pitches.  So, Savage pulled him to start the eighth for Mora, another righty, for an apparently desirous lefty-righty matchup?  The result was as expected.  Three pitches later, double.  The next pitch, RBI single.  Tie game.  Pettway stays in to pitch to Vavra (or Savage puts in a lefty to pitch to Vavra), UCLA probably pulls off the win, which would have set up Garcia to punch the Bruins' ticket to the Corvallis Super Regional.  Instead, UCLA wasted Garcia on Gonzaga. 

In the finale, the Bruins were forced to pitch Jack Ralston against Minnesota, who has only ever pitched more than 4 2/3 innings once (he pitched 5 1/3 innings against Cal State-Northridge three weeks ago) in his three-year career.  Ralston went 1 1/3, allowing four earned runs.  Minnesota, having had to use fewer arms, outlasted UCLA in a 13-8 slugfest.

UCLA is far less worrisome in a Regional than a Super Regional, because you are guaranteed to see Bird, Pettway, and Garcia over a three-game series, whereas Minnesota only had to deal with Pettway.  Minnesota flatly does not have the starting pitching depth that UCLA has.  If it comes down to a three-game series, I would choose to play Minnesota 100 times out of a 100 than UCLA.  Hopefully, Bryce and Luke make it a short series and give Kevin a prolonged rest into the College World Series.