Since the start of the Oregon State baseball season in mid-February, it’s often seemed like there was only one player on the team.

Ben Wetzler’s NCAA suspension has taken over the front pages of newspapers in Oregon and even made a dent in the national media.

Now that the senior left-hander is back with the suspension behind him and the No. 5 Beavers (9-3), it’s time to turn the attention to the team that was oh-so-close to winning it all eight months ago.

The Beavers are coming off a 3-1 weekend at home against Wright State and continue the action Tuesday at Goss Stadium against Portland.

Here are the most significant non-Wetzler storylines from the first three weeks of the 2014 season:

The freshman five

Head coach Pat Casey has never shied away from playing freshmen, but this season is unprecedented.

One-third of the regular lineup is made up of freshmen — catcher Logan Ice, shortstop Trever Morrison and third baseman Caleb Hamilton — and two pitchers are getting meaningful innings in their first year — right-handed starter Jake Thompson and right-handed reliever Chandler Eden.

Of the five, Morrison has easily been the standout. One of four players to start in all 12 games, Morrison is batting .304 with a .400 on-base percentage and a team-leading 16 runs. His defense has been a little suspect so far (four errors), but that aspect of his game is what everyone said was his strong suit before the season, so expect some progression.

Hamilton, Morrison’s counterpart on the left side of the infield, has been the biggest surprise among the group. Senior Kavin Keyes was expected to man third base for most of the season, but Hamilton started the second game at third, moving Keyes to first, and he hasn’t looked back since. He’s hitting .286, has five runs batted in, seven walks and just one error on defense.

Ice hasn’t shown up with the bat yet, but by the pitchers’ accounts, the young catcher has filled in nicely behind the plate. He’s 3-for-7 throwing out stolen base attempts, but does have two passed balls.

Of the pitchers, it’s been Thompson, not top-50 MLB Draft prospect Chandler Eden, who has excelled. In his two starts, Thompson is 2-0 and has allowed only one earned run. Eden clearly has electric stuff, but has struggled to get batters out, giving up four earned runs in five innings of work.

Center field carousel

Max Gordon was scrappy and had as much heart as his 5-foot-8 frame would allow, but he seemed like an easily replaceable starter. Going into the season, replacing Tyler Smith, Danny Hayes and Jake Rodriguez in the lineup appeared to be a much more formidable task than finding someone to take over for Gordon.

That hasn’t been the case. Sophomore Jeff Hendrix started six games in the first two weekends, but an injury limited him to just one at-bat in the Wright State series. Hendrix started the season white hot, going 8-for-15 at the plate with six runs and seven RBIs.

In his stead, junior transfer Michael Howard and senior Nick Rulli have platooned in center. Both have been suitable, but neither have excelled. It looks like it’s still Hendrix’s job to lose, but his injury status might force Howard or Rulli to step up.

Patience at the plate

OSU’s offensive numbers don’t jump off the statsheet — except for one: walks.

When asked about the team’s tendency to take walks this year, Ice used the analogy of the Oakland A’s and “Moneyball” to explain that reaching first base — whether it’s via hit, walk or hit by pitch — is what scores runs.

I doubt Casey is forcing a walk quota like Billy Beane did, but I’m sure he’s happy about the results.

The Beavers have 73 walks in 12 games, an average of six per game. Arizona is the next highest in the Pac-12 for walks with 46. OSU’s .422 on-base percentage is 11th in the nation.

The bats haven’t shown much power early on (.373 slugging percentage, one home run), but they’ve been efficient at seeing and taking pitches, which prolongs innings, starts rallies and forces opposing coaches to go deeper into the bullpen than they’d want.

Rotation commanding, bullpen subordinate

Any concern about the rotation losing some of its luster with the departure of Matt Boyd was erased in the first week when Thompson and senior right-hander Scott Schultz both threw gems.

Now with Wetzler back, the Beavers have five capable starters for four spots. It’s a good problem to have.

Wetzler, Schultz, Thompson and sophomore Andrew Moore all have ERAs lower than 2.00, and junior lefty Jace Fry is still sitting pretty at 2.82.

Those five are responsible for 87 of the team’s 108 innings and have a combined 1.86 ERA.

The bullpen, however, has not been where it needs to be, which is something Casey stressed at practice last week. OSU’s relievers have a combined 6.00 ERA.

Of particular concern is sophomore left-hander Max Engelbrekt, who has only thrown 2 1/3 innings, but has surrendered six hits and two runs. Casey went to the lefty in a crucial bases-loaded situation in the eighth inning Saturday, and Engelbrekt gave up a hit to initiate a three-run inning.

With OSU’s abundance of starting pitchers, it will be no surprise if Casey opts to bring Schultz back to a reliever role to try to bandage the ailing bullpen.

First pitch against the Pilots will be Tuesday at 5:35 p.m.

Warner Strausbaugh, editor-in-chief

On Twitter @WStrausbaugh

sports@dailybarometer.com