Recap: Oregon State Baseball Throttles Minnesota, Move to 3-0

The new Beavers lineup is quickly getting into a groove early in the season and squashing any rumors about if they can score like last year’s team.

For the third consecutive game, Oregon State quickly surrendered the lead in the first inning off an RBI double to give Minnesota a quick 1-0 lead. Sam Tweedt struggled for a good chunk of his first start of the season as he only went four and two-thirds innings. Even though he faced many tough innings, it is encouraging to note that Tweedt and the Beavers only allowed that one run the entire afternoon.

Just as quickly as Minnesota grabbed the lead, Oregon State erased it. In the bottom of the first, Tyler Malone slapped a base hit to drive in a run to tie the game, only to have Andy Armstrong double that same inning to give Oregon State the 2-1 lead after one inning. After that, the Beavs never looked back and poured it on.

After a few scoreless frames, Oregon State broke things wide open in the fourth inning. Alex McGarry notched himself an RBI and pushed the lead to 3-1. Adley Rutschman came up to plate the very next AB in a bases loaded situation and proceeded to uncork a grand slam to bust the game open. At this point in the game, Oregon State led 7-1 and showed no sign of stopping. The Beavers would eventually tack on three more runs in the sixth, and three more in the seventh to give us the final score of 13-1 in favor of OSU.

Today was one of those days where everyone in the dugout was clamoring to get to the plate. Everyone in the lineup was racking up hits, and it reflected in the scorecard as OSU notched 17 total hits on the day. An excellent offensive outing for the Beavs, to say the least.

The Beavs had six players who had at least two hits, with four players notching at least two RBI’s. Mr. Clutcshman was spectacular (shocking), as he had two hits, four RBI’s, and four runs scored on the day, as this dude continues to be a catalyst for the OSU offense. It was also encouraging to see other new starters contribute, as players like McGarry, Armstrong, Kyler McMahan and Preston Jones all had multiple hits and several RBI’s.

If there was one spot where there could have been improvement on the day, it would have been a better start for Tweedt. He failed to pitch five full innings and battled with base runners all day. Still, it was his first appearance and start of the season, so it is a given that there would be some rust.

Tweedt’s start also brought on Nathan Burns, who was fantastic in his three and a third innings appearance. He gave up no hits and struck out four in a hitless appearance for number 24. Christian Chamberlain also made an appearance to close out the game, and looked good as well.

Today was a great win against a quality Minnesota team. The Beavs have a lot of positives to build on after this game. It’ll be interesting to see how Grant Gambrell will appear in his first start of the season in a rematch against the Lobos.

Gambrell and the Beavs will take on the New Mexico Lobos for the second time in four days tomorrow afternoon with first pitch at 1:00pm PST.