Oregon State Shows Contender Form Against Utah

After sub-par performances against Pac-12 opponents, Oregon State took a step in the right direction with a 10-4 winover Utah. The win pushes the Beavers over the .500 mark with a record of 7-5 Pac-12 and 25-9 overall.

The Beavers were never in trouble against the Utes, as they jumped to an early third inning lead off of a Logan Ice triple to right field that scored two. Oregon State also took advantage of Utah's mistakes at the plate, Utes Jayson Rose walked with bases loaded to give the Beavers an easy run, and a wild pitched helped increase the lead to five.

Utah showed signs of life in the bottom of the fifth, as Josh Rose hit a home run to cut the Beavers' lead to 5-2. It would be the closest the Utes would get, as the Beavers steadily increased their lead to four in the sixth inning and a big inning in the seventh . Trever Morrison tripled to drive in two more Oregon State runners. While Cadyn Grenier added one more run for the Beavers when he hit a deep ball to center field to push the lead to 9-2.

Travis Eckert pitched eight strong innings for the Beavers. He gave up two more runs to the Utes in the eighth inning, but controlled most of the game. He scattered eights hits, with two strikeouts and was replaced with Scotland Church, who pitched the final inning for the Beavers. Oregon State added another run in the final inning off of another Utes' miscue to push the final score to 10-4.

At the plate the Beavers looked like the team that should be in control of the Pac-12 with 10 runs batted in, off of 14 hits. Logan Ice led all Beavers' batter with three rbi's, while Christian Donahue had four hits and Nick Madrigal added three hits. It was a welcome sight after Oregon State struggled to score against Washington State in a series they lost.

Oregon State ends their series against Utah Friday in a schedule change that will see the team play a doubleheader. Game two will start at 1pm and game three is scheduled for a 5pm.