Beaver Baseball: Goss Defended

Series Recap

Friday - Big time players step up in big time games and Aiden May did just that. Through 8 innings, May allowed a total of 4 baserunners, two of those coming on defensive errors. Along the way he struck out a career-high 14 batters while stifling a potent Oregon lineup. The Ducks attempted to mess with May’s rhythm midway through the game, asking the umpires to check his glove for foreign substances. The junior responded with more strikeouts and was dancing off the mound in the later stages of the game. Home runs by Brady Kasper and Travis Bazzana in the 2nd and 3rd innings respectively made the difference, and Bridger Holmes rebounded from a rough stretch by retiring the side in order to close out the series opener.

Saturday - Not to be outdone by his high school teammate, Jacob Kmatz put together a gem of his own in game 2, striking out 10 and allowing two hits across 6.1 innings. He departed after inducing a groundout by Jacob Walsh with one out in the 7th with a 1-1 tie that was broken in the bottom half by a clutch Jabin Trosky two out RBI single. The Ducks struck back in the 8th courtesy of a leadoff triple after the ball took an odd bounce off the wall in front of Gavin Turley. A sac fly then scored Mason Neville to tie the game going into the bottom half of the inning. It was Elijah Hainline’s turn to play the hero, lashing a two out single to score two runs and set up another successful save opportunity for Holmes.

Sunday - With the series in hand, the Beavers got off to exactly the opposite start you would want when going for the sweep. The Ducks sandwiched two singles between two Beaver fielding errors to stake themselves an early 2-0 lead. Eric Segura did a good job limiting the damage, but those two runs would be more than enough for the Ducks as the Beaver offense could get nothing going. OSU was held hitless until Kasper led off with his second home run of the series in the 7th, and a Turley single in the 9th was the only other hit to be found on the way to a 7-1 defeat.

---

What We Learned

Despite the sour taste from Sunday’s game, the series was the bounce back the Beavers needed. The Ducks are a tournament team and a stronger club than anyone OSU has played since Utah back in mid-March. The strong performances of May and Kmatz are exactly what you want to see in a high-pressure setting and bodes well for regionals. Arizona dropping a series to bottom-of-the-table Washington allowed the Beavers to gain a half game in the standings even without the sweep. With two series against teams with losing records in the Pac-12 followed by Arizona to close it out, the Beavers are in position to control their own destiny and showed the moxie to reach out and take it this weekend.

Defense is still a problem for this team. Mason Guerra and Hainline each had errors that May overcame by sheer force on Friday. Saturday was a clean game, but another Hainline throwing error and blown grounder by Bazzana and Jacob Kreig put the Beavers in an early hole on Sunday. Guerra was replaced at 3B by Trosky on both Saturday and Sunday, but frankly SS and 1B are the places where the Beavs need to see the most improvement.

---

Batting Line of the Week

Travis Bazzana Batting Line - 12 PA, .111/.333/.444, 1 HR, 1 RBI

The entire Beaver offense went through a slump of sorts this weekend and Bazzana was no exception. He struck out 4 times in 12 plate appearances this weekend, including twice in the series finale when the Beavers really needed some juice. He will bust out of this just fine and having and still reached base in a 3rd of his trips to the dish even with the struggles.

Non-Travis Bazzana Batting Line: Brady Kasper - 12 PA, .300/.417/1.000, 2 HR, 2 RBI

It has taken Kasper a couple weeks to get rolling after coming back from injury, but he has started the last 7 games, and was the only Beaver to be swinging a hot bat this weekend. He has been batting in the 6-7 slots of the lineup as he gets back into gear but found himself in the 3-hole on Sunday and looks to be ready to once again be a fixture in the 3-5 spots going forward.

Pitching Line of the Week

Aiden May - 1 GS, 8.0 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 14 K, 1 BB

May’s game score for this start was 112, which is by far the highest of any Beaver this year and 4th highest of the season across the country. It beats out even Arkansas’ Hagen Smith 17 strikeout performance against the Beavs back in February, mostly due to the extra 6 outs May picked up. He had complete control of the game and paired that with swagger to carry the team along with him.

---

Pac-12 Power Rankings

It was a weekend dominated by the home team in the Pac-12, with only Washington State losing a non-conference series to Fresno State to break up the home series winners. Washington won two close games to bring Arizona closer to the pack, and Utah was the only team to break out the brooms, sending UCLA farther into the depths of the Pac-12 cellar.

1. (Up 1) Oregon State. Won series vs Oregon 2-1 (7-9)
2. (Down 1) Arizona. Lost series @ Washington 1-2 (14-15)
3. (Up 1) Utah. Swept UCLA at home 3-0 (22-12)
4. (Down 1) Oregon. Lost series @ Oregon State 1-2 (9-7)
5. (Down 1) California. Lost series @ Stanford 1-2 (19-27)
6. (NC) Arizona State. Won series vs USC 2-1 (35-14)
7. (Up 1) Stanford. Won series vs California 2-1 (27-19)
8. (Up 2) Washington. Won series vs Arizona 2-1 (15-14)
9. (Down 2) USC. Lost series @ Arizona State 1-2 (14-35)
10. (Down 1) Washington State. Lost series vs Fresno State 1-2 (10-20)
11. (NC) UCLA. Swept on the road at Utah 0-3 (12-22)