Oregon State Baseball: Beavers Take Game 2 Against Cal, 2-1

The Beavers vs Bears series continues to be a strange. After yesterday’s high scoring affair, today was a nail biter, with Oregon State emerging with a narrow 2-1 win. The Beavers improve to 23-10, with a 9-5 conference record.

Oregon State and California went five full innings with no score, until the Golden Bears finally broke the stalemate in the top of the sixth. A Darren Baker double, followed by a Nathan Manning single, gave the Bears their only run of the day. The Beavers responded in the seventh.

Preston Jones led off with a single, and then a Jacob Melton double got Jones to third base. Then things got strange. A Ryan Ober single scored Jones, but when Ober tried to push for second, he got caught between the bases. While Cal was trying to get Ober out, Melton made the most of the opportunity and ran for home. The throw to home plate was not in time, and the Beavers got the lead.

You couldn’t draw it up any better.

That it was for the action Saturday. The Golden Bears never got another base runner. It was an excellent day for Beaver pitching. As the starter, Cooper Hjerpe pitched for 6.0 innings, during which he struck out nine batters. He allowed 3 hits, 1 walk and 1 earned run. Joey Mundt got the win after coming in as relief in the 7th. He struck out 1, and allowed no walks or hits. Jake Mulholland picked up his eighth save of the season and his 38th of his career, which makes him the all time leader for saves at Oregon State.

The Beavers have the series win, and they’ll go for the sweep tomorrow at 12:05 PM PT. Oregon State will be streaming the game on pac-12.com.