Beaver Baseball Takes Series Win from Stanford

Series Recap

Friday - It has been a long time coming, but when it came it came quick. Brady Kasper found his way back into the lineup for the first time in a month as the DH to start the series and made his impact immediately, lashing a double in the first inning to score Travis Bazzana and give the Beavs an early lead.

That was all Aiden May and the pitching staff would need. May faced one above the minimum through the first six innings before running into trouble with back-to-back walks to start the 7th. Joey Mundt was brought on to work out of the jam, first by making things worse with a hit batter, then by using five pitches to get a strikeout and double play to end the threat. That ended Stanford’s best chance to score, while the OSU offense made the most of 5 hits and 6 walks to plate six runs against Cardinal starter Matt Scott and reliever Ben Reimers.

Saturday - The Cardinal took an early lead on Saturday courtesy of a Jimmy Nati solo home run but found nothing else. The Beavers had a couple opportunities early against starter Christian Lim but could not cash in, stranding runners in scoring position in the 2nd and 3rd innings. Stanford almost escaped a third time in the 5th inning as well. Bazzana and Gavin Turley doubled and walked respectively and got into scoring position on a wild pitch. They watched from there as Mason Guerra and Kasper fell victim to strikeouts before Stanford lifted Lim to face Wilson Weber. Weber singled on the 2nd pitch he saw to plate both runners and give the Beavers a lead. A short outing by AJ Hutcheson and season-high 42 pitches across 2.1 innings by Bridger Holmes gave OSU the series win.

Sunday - Gavin Turley did his best to singlehandedly drag Oregon State to a series sweep. Down 3-0 in the 3rd, the sophomore hit a go-ahead grand slam, and hit another two-run home run in the bottom of the 8th to tie the game at 10. That along with other efforts from the Beavers lineup were not enough to overcome a pitching staff that gave up 12 hits (8 for extra bases) and hit three more batters. The defense didn't do much to help either. The painful 8th inning was a case in point, starting with a leadoff hit batter followed by a walk before Kellan Oakes was relieved by AJ Hutcheson. Hutcheson then committed a throwing error on a sac bunt to load the bases, then hit another batter to drive in a run and allowing a bases clearing double to complete his outing for the day. Easton Talt’s first career homer, and Turley’s aforementioned blast tied the game back up, but a leadoff home run by Stanford C/DH Charlie Saum (who earned a golden sombrero by striking out in his first four at bats of the game) against freshman Laif Palmer in the 9th proved to be the final difference.

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What We Learned

Mitch Canham is looking for the right lineup combination. Some spots are locked in at this point in the season. Bazzana at leadoff, followed by Turley and Mason Guerra has been the top of the order for the last 10 games, while Cannon Reeder holds down the 9 spot while Micah McDowell is recovering. In between them, Canham rolled out a different combination of mostly the same players in each of the three games in this series. That mix is likely to continue to change, especially once McDowell (who hit primarily 2nd so far this year) and Trent Carraway make their way back into the lineup, hopefully in the coming weeks.

Sloppy play needs to be corrected before Regionals Clean defense has been a calling card of Oregon State baseball since they broke onto the national scene in the mid 2000’s. That has not been the case so far in 2024. OSU’s fielding percentage of .969 would be their worst since 2005, and they have already committed as many errors (39) as all of last year in just more than half as many games. Hit batters and walks per game are also the highest they have been in that time frame, with the Beaver pitching staff on pace to hit over 100 batters in a full season (the high since 2014 is 83 back in 2021). Any one of these being an issue would be something that can be overcome, but the three combined make for too many games like Sunday, and while that will work against the level of Pac-12 competition that exists this year, it will not against quality teams in the tournament.

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Batting Line of the Week

Travis Bazzana Batting Line - 14 PA, .286/.643/.429, 0 HR, 0 RBI

Stanford ensured that Bazzana would not be the one that beat them this series and pitched around him the entire series. The Australian had only two hits in the series, 6 times in 14 plate appearances. That may be the norm for him as the season goes on since the alternative is him putting balls over the right field bleachers on repeat. Bazzana scored just two times of the 6 times he reached base via free pass, so the plan worked for the most part (he also scored both times he got a base hit in the series).

Non-Bazzana Batting Line: Dallas Macias - 13 PA, .333/.385/.917, 2 HR, 4 RBI

It took a few games for Macias to crack the starting lineup, but he has been a constant middle-of-the order presence for the Beavers since the end of February and has made it easier for Mitch Canham to ease Micah McDowell and Brady Kasper back into the lineup by locking down left field. Macias doubled his season home run total in the first two games of the series, going deep both days against Stanford. The Colorado native has hits in 16 of the last 17 games and holds the active team leading hitting streak with 11 games.

Pitching Line of the Week

Aiden May - 1 GS, 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 5 K, 2 BB

May’s Friday start was the best he has had in a Beaver uniform so far. He pitched into the 7th inning for the first time this year and did not allow a run in his second start of the year (the first being his first game back from injury in a 2.2 inning outing against Washington). OSU will need him to fill the ace role as they head into a couple key Pac-12 series over the coming weeks.

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Pac-12 Power Rankings

The Beavers’ lead in the Pac-12 standings was maintained by USC beating Oregon on Sunday to avoid a sweep. Four teams are within two games of the lead (the same top four as our power rankings below). Cal will host the Beavers next weekend after sweeping Washington State on the road and bouncing back from a terrible two week stretch in which they were swept by both Arizona schools. Oregon is up to 16th in the D1 Baseball Top 25. Assuming they don’t trip up at Sunken Diamond against Stanford next weekend, the rivalry series April 26-28th looms large in the Pac-12 title race.

1. (NC) Oregon St. Won series vs. Stanford 2-1 (19-12)
2. (NC) Oregon. Won series vs. USC 2-1 (11-8)
3. (NC) Arizona. Swept Louisiana Tech 3-0 (20-8)
4. (NC) Utah. Won series @ Arizona St. 2-1 (24-13)
5. (Up 2) California. Swept Washington St. on the road 3-0 (25-10)
6. (Down 1) USC. Lost series @ Oregon 1-2 (8-11)
7. (Down 1) Washington St. Swept at home by California 0-3 (10-25)
8. (NC) Arizona St. Lost series vs. Utah 1-2 (13-24)
9. (Up 1) Washington. Won series vs. UCLA 2-1 (18-21)
10. (Down 1) Stanford. Lost series @ Oregon St. 1-2 (12-19)
11. (NC) ULCA. Lost series @ Washington 1-2 (21-18)