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The number one overall seed in the 2017 NCAA Baseball Tournament, Oregon State beat Holy Cross fairly easily on Friday night by a score of 8-2.
Nick Madrigal drove in Cadyn Grenier for the first run in the bottom of the third. Jack Anderson brought Madrigal in soon after with an RBI single of his own. Holy Cross came back in the top of the fifth when a ball dribbled to Christian Donahue in left field and the throw was deflected coming into home, allowing the runner to score.
Adley Rutschman gave the Beavs some breathing room in the bottom of the sixth with an RBI double. Cadyn Grenier added another with an RBI sac fly that looked to be just a few inches short of being a grand slam. A “balk” gave the Beavers their third run of the inning. In the next inning, Oregon State got a couple more off a Trevor Larnach RBI double and Michael Gretler home run.
The eighth run came off an RBI double from Preston Jones in the eighth innning. Holy Cross got one back in the top of the ninth, but Jake Mulholland closed it out to secure the victory.
Jake Thompson had fantastic day pitching, going seven and two thirds innings with ten strikeouts and just four hits with an earned run. That included a stretch from the sixth inning to seventh with five consecutive strikeouts. He’s up to 106 strikeouts in 2017.
The win moves OSU to 50-4 on the year, which marks just the third time in program history they’ve hit 50 wins. They’re now just two shy of tying the program record for wins in a season, set by the 2013 team.
The Beavs next play Yale, who beat Nebraska earlier Friday in Corvallis, Saturday evening at 7 PM PT. For more on Yale’s squad, check out our Corvallis Regional preview.