16-1 Blowout Gives Beavers Series Win Over Arizona
16-1 Blowout Gives Beavers Series Win Over Arizona
Thursday’s 9-2 win over the Wildcats was a good way for Oregon State, but no one would have been surprised if Arizona bounced back in game 2 to make the series interesting. That didn’t happen Friday night, as Oregon State exploited an error prone Arizona team for one of their biggest blowouts of the season. The 16-1 win moves the Beavers 41-12 overall, and 19-9 in the conference.
The first inning set the tone for the game. Travis Bazzana started the night off with a double, and then an error allowed Gavin Turley to safely reach base. A second error scored Bazzana, allowed Turley to advance to third and put Brady Kasper on first. A wild pitch then scored Turley. 1 hit, 2 errors and a wild pitch had given the Beavers a 2-0 lead.
A Travis Bazzana sacrifice grounder and a Micah McDowell single added two more runs in the second, while a Wilson Weber single and an Easton Talt bunt added two in the fifth. The Beavers were already comfortably in control of the game headed into the sixth inning, but that’s when things really got out of hand.
A Jabin Trosky single, Travis Bazzana double and Micah McDowell walk got the bases loaded with no outs. Gavin Turley was then hit by a pitch to score Trosky, then a Bradyu Kasper single scored Bazzana and McDowell. A fielder’s choice from Wilson Weber scored Turley for the Beavers final run of the inning, giving them a 10-0 lead after six.
The Wildcats got a run back in the bottom of the frame, but the Beavers immediately tacked on three more in the top of the seventh when a bases loaded walk to Elijah Hainline scored Gavin Turley before an Easton Talt single scored Wilson Weber and Brady Kasper. Oregon State scored another three runs in the top of the ninth thanks to a Mason Guerra single, a Jabin Trosky fielder’s choice and a wild pitch.
While the hitting is going to draw a lot of attention, let’s not forget about the absolute clinic Beaver pitching put on last night. Jacob Kmatz got the win, moving him to 6-2 this season. He struck out 8 Arizona batters over 6.0 innings while allowing 4 hits, 1 walk and 1 earned run. Ian Lawson struggled a bit in relief, but Kellan Oakes and AJ Hutcheson stablized things, closing out the game while allowing only 1 hit over the final three innings.
The win puts the Beavers on top of the Pac-12 standings, half a game over Arizona. That makes tonight’s game the decider for the regular season Pac-12 crown. The win should also put to rest any worries about whether Corvallis will host a superregional for this year’s NCAA Baseball Tournament. The Beavers were already in a decent spot, being ranked sixth overall nationally, and a 16-1 drubbing of a top 25 team on the road should burnish their resume quite a bit.
The final game against Arizona is set to start at 6:00 PM.