After a tough loss Friday night, Beaver baseball bounced back with a big win over the 12th ranked Arizona Wildcats on Saturday. OSU took down the Wildcats 3-1 behind some impressive pitching from both starter Cooper Hjerpe and the relief unit to improve to 33-19, and 15-11 overall.
After two quick outs, Oregon State grabbed a run in the bottom of the first. A single from Garret Forrester and a double from Troy Claunch, the result of an Arizona miscommunication, gave the Beavs a scoring opportunity, and a Ryan Ober single drove in a run, giving the Beavers a 1-0 lead.
13-game hit streak.
— Oregon State Baseball (@BeaverBaseball) May 23, 2021
Watch: https://t.co/9Xfn71RxDe#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/bBktOHG8Vn
The Beavers got more in the bottom of the third, with a single form Claunch getting things started. A Justin Boyd single moved him into scoring position, and then a big triple from Jake Dukart scored Boyd and Claunch, putting Oregon State up 3-0.
Arizona got a run in the sixth, but Oregon State’s pitching was lights out for most of the game. Cooper Hjerpe got the start, and picked up his third win of the season giving him a 3-5 record. He finished with a career best 11 strikeouts over 7.0 innings pitched, allowing just 2 hits, one run and one walk.
Jake Mulholland picked up another impressive save, coming in in the ninth. That’s his 13th save of the year. Arizona threatened to do some damage in the final inning, after opening the inning with a single and a double, but Mulholland worked a quick pair of outs to get the Beavers closer to the win. After the next batter walked to load the bases, Mulholland struck out Arizona’s Kobe Kato to end the game in dramatic fashion.
That's a career-high 10 strikeouts for Cooper Hjerpe.
— Oregon State Baseball (@BeaverBaseball) May 23, 2021
Watch: https://t.co/9Xfn71RxDe#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/2JoCZ1Gwc7
With the series split 1-1, the deciding game is set for tomorrow at 12:00 PM PT. The game will be aired on the Pac-12 networks.