Oregon State Throws Away Game 1, Loses 3-2

This was a disaster of a game, alhough both teams started off pitching pretty well. Andrew Moore came out dealing for the Beavers and didn't even give up a hit until the 4th inning. Meanwhile his counterpart Cole Irvin was throwing well as well and neither starter allowed a run until the 5th.

The Beavers run came off the bat of Trever Morrison as he singled through the right side to score Kyle Nobach who reached on a single and moved over to 3rd with 2 outs. OSU seemed to have taken some momentum, as Moore had seemed near perfect through the first four innings. With one out he gave up a double to Scott Heineman, but he struck out the next batter and looked like he would escape with no damage after a routine groundball to Michael Gretler. He hesitated though and missed the throw to first which allowed Heineman to round third and tie the game back up,

From there things continued to get sloppier. The top of the 6th saw the Beavers get caught stealing for the first out which was followed by a Gabe Clark single on the next pitch. Then KJ Harrison gave up an infield popup and Clark thought there were two outs and ran all the way to third for a ridiculous double play. In the bottom half Trever Morrison got caught while trying to catch a player in a rundown and he threw it straight into the turf.

Things only continued to get worse from there as OSU got runners on 1st and 2nd with 1 out. Michael Gretler slapped a single into shallow center field and for whatever reason Kyle Nobach was waved home and was thrown out at the plate. The next batter was Trever Morrison who only hit a dribbler to the pitcher so the run may not have scored if he held at 3rd, but it would have been a better chance.

While the Beavers were floundering Andrew Moore stayed a rock. He started getting into jams in the 5th but he got out of them with the exception of the Gretler error which scored a run. The escapes went all the way until the 8th inning when he walked a batter and was pulled for Luke Heimlich. Heimlich got out of that inning as well so Moore only had the one unearned run and ended with a line of 7.1 innings, 2 hits, 0 ER, 7 K, 3 BB, and 2 HBP. It wasn't enough for the win though which we will get to momentarily.

Oregon State was able to take the lead in the top of the 8th though, Jeff Hendrix got on base with a HBP off the ole dome. UO made a mistake with a passed ball and Hendrix advanced to 2nd. Caleb Hamilton and Gabe Clark could not do anything with Hendrix in scoring position, but KJ Harrison did more or less with a mildly lucky bloop single. That brought the game to 2-1 going to the 9th inning.

OSU actually had a chance to tack on insurance runs in the top of the 9th with runners on first and second with one out. Morrison struck out and Hendrix did the same to new relief pitcher Garrett Cleavinger. That brought it to the bottom of the 9th and Heimlich was still in to try and close out the game. He gave up a couple free bases but also got two outs and with a 1-2 count to Austin Grebeck and that's when the Beavers completely fell apart.

Grebeck hit a sharp groundball right to Caleb Hamilton and he mishandled it for one error and then in his panic he rushed a throw over to first which missed KJ Harrison and allowed the runner at 2nd to get all the way home. That tied the game at 2 and left runners at the corners.

Heimlich couldn't recover and gave up a walk to load the bases and Mitch Hickey was finally called in. Hickey has always been a touch wild however and he walked in the final run and the collapse was complete.

This was a colossal failure as the Beavers had it all wrapped up and just simply gave it away, lots of mistakes all the way around. With the errors by the players and the choice to send home Nobach and ride Heimlich for perhaps too long in the 9th. OSU needs to come out swinging tomorrow and they can recover, as long as they shore up those mistakes.