Recap: Oregon State Baseball Drops Close One To BYU

“I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.”--Abraham Lincoln

The Oregon State Beavers baseball team got off to a hot start against the BYU Cougars in Surprise, Arizona on Monday afternoon, but were unable to sustain the momentum. Leading 3-1 heading into the 7th, the Beavers eventually lost the lead when BYU scored three unanswered runs over the next two innings and held that lead until the end of the game.

Despite winning 4-3, BYU only accumulated six hits compared to Oregon State’s ten. Neither team committed an error.

Nathan Burns started on the mound for the Beavs and put together a rather solid five-inning performance. The junior from West Bend, Wisconsin racked up seven strikeouts allowing just four hits and three walks. The loss for this game was given to reliever Joey Mundt (0-1) who allowed the three runs that gave BYU the lead.

Reliever Drew Zimmerman of BYU earned the winning decision to make his record 1-0 and Mikade Johnson picked up the save for the Cougars.

Arguably the highlight of the game for Oregon State came from Kyler McMahan’s diving catch in the eighth shortly before BYU took the lead.

Offensively, Ryan Ober and Andy Armstrong kept the Beavers in this one to the very end. Both had three hits each with Ober driving in two RBIs.

All in all, this trip to AZ gave us a glimpse of what this team could be dealing with throughout the season. While obviously the pitching will have to pick up the slack without Kevin Abel, the remaining starters seem like an exciting group. Depth could potentially be an issue with the amount of inexperience in the bullpen, currently.

The Beavs next head to Starkville, Mississippi for a long-awaited three game series against Mississippi State, which begins on Friday at 2 PM PST.