Oregon State carried a 5-1 lead into the eighth inning in their series finale against Arizona, but a huge comeback from the Wildcats gave them a 6-5 win. The loss drops the Beavers to 33-20, and 15-12 in the conference.
OSU got off to hot a start, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first. The inning started with a Wade Meckler single and an Andy Armstrong walk, and then a Garret Forrester single put the first run on the board. After Troy Claunch walked to load the bases, Justin Boyd walked to bring in a second run. A Jake Dukart fly out added a third to cap off the scoring.
Arizona grabbed a run in the top of the third with a Donta Williams double, but the Beavers responded in the bottom of the inning. After Ryan Ober walked to start the inning, a single and a fly out advanced him to third, setting up a sac bunt from Matthew Gretler for another run.
Oregon State’s fifth and final run came in the fourth, when a Troy Claunch single scored Wade Meckler. The Beavers would get several chances for the rest of the game, but never found a way to get a runner home. For awhile, that was enough, as starter Jake Pfennigs pitched a solid game until the eighth inning.
That was when things started to fall apart. The first three batters Pfennigs faced all hit singles, giving the Wildcats another run and ending Jake’s day. Chase Watkings came in, but another single gave Arizona another run. Watkins worked a strikeout to give the Beavers their first out, but a wild pitch got Arizona to within run. After an infield fly, the Beavers were one out away from keeping their lead, but a single to left scored another run for Arizona, tying the game 5-5.
The Wildcats got their first lead of the day in the top of the ninth with a Nik McClaughry single scoring Kyson Donahue. In the bottom of the ninth, lead off batter Justin Boyd singled to give the Beavers a tying runner, but a ground out and back to back strikeouts ended the game in a 6-5 Beaver loss.
The Beavers have one week left to make their case to the NCAA’s playoff committee. They’ll have to do it in a road series against Stanford, currently the fifteenth ranked team in the country. Expect that ranking to go up this week however, the Cardinal are coming off a series win over the Oregon Ducks. The first game in the Beavers-Cardinal series is set for Thursday, May 27th at 6:00 PM PT. It will be aired by the Pac-12 Networks.