CORVALLIS, Ore. — Dax Whitney had a standout year on the mound for Oregon State University, even garnering Second-Team Freshman All-American honors from the National Collegiate of Baseball Writers for his 2025 campaign.

Whitney posted an ERA of 3.40 during his freshman year, striking out 120 in 72.2 innings while walking only 37. But as he looks toward the 2026 season, which begins next month, he knows he can do better.

“I am pretty hard on myself,” Whitney said. “I had a good ERA, I had good strikeout numbers, but for my own standards, I feel like I walked too many. I feel like I threw too many pitches per inning.”

He is hard on himself. Moments after saying he had a good ERA in 2025, he follows it up with saying he would have liked his ERA to have been lower. The ERA, or earned run average, is the average number of earned runs the pitcher gives up during nine innings.

Whitney believes his could have been below 3.0 had he started the season better. He attributes his start to the 2025 season to a belief that he could approach things at the college level as he did back in Blackfoot when pitching for the Broncos.

“I just wanted to go out and throw fastballs, and that just doesn’t work at this level,” Whitney said. “No matter how good your fastball is, if you throw 50 in a row, they are going to hit them.”

In high school, he could rely on just his fastball, which reaches speeds in the mid-90s. He struck out 14 on more than one occasion for the Broncos, including one game where he faced just 15 batters. It was a perfect game that was shortened to five innings because the Broncos lead invoked the 10-run rule.

Whitney throws four pitches: a fastball, a curve, a slider and a changeup. The changeup, which looks like a fastball from the batter’s perspective but is thrown at a slower speed, is the one Whitney most worked on going into his freshman year.

“I didn’t really have much of a changeup in high school,” he said. “I really worked on developing that pitch. I am as confident in my changeup now as any other pitch.”

He didn’t sit idle during the off-season, continuing to develop his pitches. Although college players will usually play during the fall to keep in shape, Whitney played for Team USA during the 2025 USA vs. Japan Collegiate All-Star Series.

He spent the fall preparing for the 2026 season. He did a lot of weight training, building muscle. Whitney said he finished high school at 185 pounds, making him a bit light for his 6-foot, 5-inch frame. He is now at 215 pounds and expects that as his career progresses, he will eventually be in the range of 225 to 230 pounds.

On the mound, he has spent time adjusting one of his pitches.

“I worked on sharpening each pitch, but the slider was a big focus,” Whitney said. “I kind of changed it. I was throwing more of a sweeper, but now it’s more of a harder, tighter slider with a downward motion.”

As a sweeping slider, it would move mostly side to side, either coming from out of the strike into it, or from being in the strike to moving out of it, with some downward motion. Now his slider will have more downward motion and less side-to-side movement.

“This year, my goal is to have a sub-3.0 ERA,” he said.

Whitney was considered among the top 100 prospects going into the 2024 Major League Baseball draft. Depending on the list you were looking at, he was anywhere from 35 to 63 in the country. One story for the Texas Rangers prior to the draft even said Whitney was worth considering at the No. 30 pick. He could have been looking at six figures or more right out of high school.

But Whitney wasn’t drafted, making it clear he was college-bound.

“I have absolutely zero regrets about the decision I made,” he said.

Opting for college was about the experience and knowledge he could gain, and about the education he could receive as well. He is majoring in sociology.

“Part of it is just wanting to do something different,” he said. “I think it’s cool, the study of human behavior and relationships.”

Whitney, who took over the top spot in the pitching rotation at the end of the 2025 season, believes he’s ready to perform even better this season. He also believes the Beavers are poised to do well.

“We got quite a few transfers on the pitching staff,” he said. “I think we are going to be one of the best pitching staffs in the country this year.”

But he also warns that opposing teams shouldn’t go to sleep on Oregon State’s offense.

“Our offense isn’t getting enough credit,” he said. “I think we are going to be really dangerous at the plate and on the bases.”

Oregon State’s baseball season gets underway on Feb. 13 in Surprise, Ariz., against the University of Michigan. The Beavers are playing in the College Baseball Series at Surprise Stadium, which will also feature the University of Arizona and Stanford University.

The following week, from Feb. 20-22, the Beavers will be in Round Rock, Texas for the 2026 Round Rock Classic, which will include Baylor University, Purdue University and the University of Southern Mississippi.