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#1 Oregon State Baseball Clinches Civil War Series and Pac-12 Championship

OSU survived a close call with the Ducks Friday to win their fifth league title under Pat Casey.

By Joe Londergan
Twitter - Oregon State Baseball - @BeaverBaseball

On a cold and rainy night at PK Park in Eugene, Oregon State won the Pac-12 outright with a 5-4 win over Oregon. That win also marked head coach Pat Casey’s 1,000th career victory and the fifth Pac-12 championship under Casey.

Casey kept Drew Rasmussen to three innings in his first start of the season. His day included one hit, five strikeouts, and two walks. While Jordan Britton made a brief relief appearance, Max Engelbrekt had the longest day of his college career (3.6 innings). That earned Engelbrekt his third win and Mitchell Verburg got his second save of 2017.

Oregon struck first when rightfielder Matthew Dyer scored in the aftermath of a botched pick off attempt from Adley Rutschman. Rutschman got some redemption in the next frame when he scored as a result of an error by Ducks’ second baseman Carson Breshears. That play came when Breshears had trouble handling a pick off throw from David Peterson when Christian Donahue stole second.

The Beavs’ next run came in the third inning when Steven Kwan got his big night going by laying down a near perfect sacrifice bunt that scored Cadyn Grenier.

Oregon took the lead back for a short time in the bottom of the fourth. First baseman Gabe Matthews stole home on a wild pitch from Max Engelbrekt and catcher Tim Susnara scored off a sac fly from A.J. Balta shortly after.

Kwan’s next big moment came in the top of the fifth when he smacked a two run double to right field. That put the Beavers back on top. Kwan subsequently scored off of a sac fly from K.J. Harrison.

Oregon got back within one in the eighth when Susnara came up with an RBI single, but the stable of OSU pitchers held the Ducks off for just long enough to keep the victory. When it was all said and done, Oregon had outhit the Beavs 7-5. Fortunately for OSU, Oregon’s four fielding errors to OSU’s one really cost them.

The Beavers go for the sweep tomorrow at 7 PM PT.

A league championship and a big win for the best coach in program history on the home turf of your arch enemy. Doesn’t get much better than that, does it Beaver fans?