Beavers Take Advantage of Husky Errors 4-2

After Andrew Moore's disastrous outing the biggest question was how he would recover. He answered that with three no-hit innings. The Beaver offense did not show up yet either with only a few sparse base runners. The first real action did not come until the the 4th when an error allowed Husky runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs.

Moore stood tall though however getting the first out of the inning with a flyout to center field. A terrific throw on that catch held the lead runner at 2nd. Then on the next at bat Dane Lund mishandled a pitch but recovered in time to gun out the runner trying to steal 3rd base leaving UW with only one out left in the inning. The Beavers' ace came through with a strikeout to end the inning.

The Beavers offense kept nibbling away at Husky starting pitcher Noah Bremer, who ended up getting touched up for 7 hits but no runs against him. Oregon State chased him in the 6th inning after three singles by the 2-4 hitters loaded the bases with one out. Washington brought in reliever Spencer Jones and he struck out Billy King and Elliott Cary was unable to earn a single.

Moore continued to pitch well and the Beavers had another chance to take the lead in the top of the 7th. OSU loaded the bases against a new reliever in Brandon Choate. With one out Dane Lund came up in the order but Michael Howard pinch hit for him. It seemed like a strange choice with how Lund has been hitting as of late and Howard could not deliver. Hendrix was up next and hit a weak one to the 3rd baseman and he threw it past the Husky 1st baseman and 2 runs came into score for OSU. That was all the scoring for the inning and while perhaps it was a bit lucky for the Beavers, the pressure they had created forced the errant throw from Alex Schmidt.

The lead was short lived however as the first batter was walked on a full count by Moore and then Austin Rei slugged one over the left field wall to tie it back up. Moore recovered to close out the inning and got two more in the second, one thanks to an incredible Nobach catch on top of the wall.

Both teams failed to do anything in the 9th and the game went to extra innings. OSU started off with Logan Ice, who had come in for Howard after his pinch hit at bat. He got a single to lead off the inning and Hendrix looked to move him over with a sac bunt but again the ball flew past the 1st baseman and the Beavs were in business with runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs. After a Gillette K Elliott Cary came through with a 2 RBI single, although only Ice was an earned run. That brought the lead to 4-2 and Mitch Hickey came on to close.

He allowed a leadoff double but shut down the next three batters to earn his 7th save of the year and the Beavs moved to 28-13 overall and 11-8 in the Pac-12.

Andrew Moore got the win 7 2/3 innings pitched, 2 hits, 2 ER, 2 walks, and 6 strikeouts.

No Beaver had a terrific day at the plate but kudos to Cary getting the winning hit in a clutch situation.

Game 2 is at 7 pm tomorrow.

Go Beavs!