Oregon State Baseball: Beavers Beat Cougars 9-8 in Back and Forth Brawl

The third game between Oregon State and Washington State came down to the final outs, with the Beavers emerging victorious after a wild game. The Beavers built an early lead, but a huge fifth inning from the Cougars got them back in the game. Oregon State came back to grab a 9-8 win to take the series against Wazzu 2-1, and move to 13-4 overall and 2-1 in conference play.

The Beavers scoring started strangely. Ryan Ober was hit by a pitch to start the inning, and then was advanced to second by a Joe Casey bunt single. A double play got Ober to third but gave the Beavers two outs. Then, a pitch by WSU starter Will Sierra went wild, getting Ober home and the Beavers a lead.

A pair of walks got Brady Kasper and Kyler McMahan on base. Those were followed by a Preston Jones single that scored 2 runs and gave Oregon State an early 3-0 lead. The Cougars would answer in the top of the third, grabbing one run with a big Kyle Manzardo double.

In the bottom of the third, the Beavers started with a pair of singles from Garret Forrester and Jake Dukart. A Ryan Ober fly out got Forrester in scoring position, and Joe Casey fly out got Forrester home. A Brady Kasper single scored Dukart to give the Beavers another run. Washington State responded with a single run off of a Jacob McKeon single. That gave the Beavers a 5-2 lead before the disastrous fifth inning.

Washington State got two runners on base with a single and a walk. An error by Garret Forrester allowed the Cougars first run of the inning, and prompted a change at the pitching round. Nathan Burns took over Chase Watkins, who had come on in relief in the fourth. Burns didn’t fair much better than Watkins. He walked the first batter he faced, gave up a double to the second and hit the third. All told, that added another two runs to Wazzu’s side of the board, tying the game 5-5.

The Cougars took the lead when a fly out from Jack Smith scored another run. That was the Beavers first out of the inning. A failed pick off from Burns resulted in an error and advanced the WSU runners. Another fly ball, this time from Jacob McKeon, gave the Cougars another run and the Beavers another out. Finally, a ground ball ended the inning. All told, the Cougars scored 5 runs to take a 7-2 lead.

It didn’t last long. In the bottom of the sixth, Kyle Froemke reached base after being hit by a pitch. He advanced to second on yet another wild pitch, and then advanced to third on a Kyler McMahan bunt. Preston Jones then hit a single past third to score Froemke. A walk by Cole Hamilton and Garret Forrester getting hit by a pitch got the bases loaded, and then one more wild pitch scored Jones. That tied the game up, 7-7.

The Beavers got the lead back in the bottom of the seventh, when a Kyler McMahan single scored Froemke, but the Cougars responded with a run in the top of the seventh off of, you guessed it, a wild pitch. This time from Joey Mundt. Both the Beavers and Cougars got well into their relief squads today. WSU went through seven pitchers, while six Beavers saw the mound. After Mundt’s wild pitch, the game was tied 8-8 heading into the final innings.

Andy Armstrong untied the game with a solo home run to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Jake Mulholland worked a quick three outs in the top of the ninth to get the Beavers the win, and the win in the series. Mulholland earned a save, his fifth of the season.

As the starter, Jake Pfennigs pitched for 3.0 innings, where he struck out 2, walked 2, and allowed 2 hits and 1 earned run. Bryant Salgado, the fifth pitcher the Beavers used in their rotation, got the win after coming in in the seventh. He pitched for 1.2 innings, and allowed no hits or runs, with 1 walk. The win is Salgado’s second of the season, he’s 2-0 this year.

Preston Jones had a big day at the plate, getting 3 hits and 3 runs batted in. Garret Forrester earned 2 hits and was walked twice. Jake Dukart, Ryan Ober, Kyle Froemke, Kyler McMahan, Brady Kasper and Andy Armstrong each had 1 hit, with Armstrong’s being the solo home run that clinched the win.

The Beavers will have one day off before they welcome the Santa Clara Broncos to town for a midweek series. OSU and Santa Clara will play on Tuesday and Wednesday, with both games set to start at 5:35 PM PT. Oregon State will stream the games on Pac-12.com.