Beavers Beat Lobos 5-2 To Close Out Opening Weekend

After two blowout wins over the weekend, the Beavers found themselves in a tighter situation Monday afternoon, but solid relief pitching and good hitting gave them their third straight win. Oregon State beat the New Mexico Lobos for the second time in three days 5-2, to improve to 3-1 overall.

After the game opened with a couple scoreless innings, Oregon State got on the board in the third. After Preston Jones reached first on a throwing error, a Ryan Ober double put both runners in scoring position. A groundout form Jake Dukart allowed Jones to reach home, putting the Beavers up 1-0.

New Mexico tied things up in the fourth when a Willie Cano single scored Jared Martin. A few batters later Cano scored off of a Cole Posey single, giving the Lobos a 2-1 lead. Starting pitcher Will Frisch struggled a bit this inning, allowing three hits and hitting one batter.

The Beavers answered that in the bottom of the inning. Kyler McMahan reached base with a double, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Cole Hamilton then hit a bunt single to score McMahan and tie things up. A solo homer from Jake Dukart in the bottom of the fifth got the Beavers the lead back, putting OSU up 3-2 after five innings.

In the sixth, Micah McDowell walked, and then reached third base on a wild pitch. With two outs, Andy Armstrong managed to hit a short blooper to center field, scoring McDowell. In the bottom of the eighth, Kyler McMahan singled and Micah McDowell doubled to put runners in scoring position, allowing Andy Armstrong to add another run to the board with a single.

That would be all the runs OSU needed, as the relief pitching held solidly and the Beavers took the win, 5-2. Will Frisch got the win after pitching for the first 5 innings, allowing 5 hits and two earned runs, with 5 strikeouts, no walks and 3 hit batters. Mitch Verburg got the save after coming in in the ninght, allowing one hit against one strikeout.

Andy Armstrong had a great game, with 3 hits in his 4 at bats, resulting in 2 RBI. Ryan Ober, Kyler McMahan, Micah McDowell and Cole Hamilton each had 2 run games. It wasn’t the high scoring output we saw from the previous two games, but the hitting still looks solid.

Next weekend, the Beavers will travel to Phoenix for a four game series against Grand Canyon University. The first game is scheduled for Thursday at 5:00 PM, then the following games will be Friday at 5:00, Saturday at 1:00 and Sunday at 11:00 AM. Check back for more coverage.