Beaver Baseball: History Made

Series Recap

Friday - The series opener was as complete a game as Oregon State has put together this year. Aiden May was on top of it as he has been in his last three starts, striking out 9 and holding UCLA scoreless through six innings. May struck out six in a row at one point, did not allow an extra base hit, and only allowed two UCLA runners to reach scoring position. The Oregon State offense took a turn through the order to get things going but busted through with three runs each in the 3rd and 4th innings largely thanks to home runs from Dallas Macias, Micah McDowell, and Tanner Smith. OSU continued to pour it on, scoring a run each in the last four innings while Ian Lawson picked up a 3 inning save and completing the shutout.

Saturday - UCLA struck first on Saturday, scoring off of a one-out Duce Gourson double off of Jacob Kmatz. The Beavers squared things up in the second on a Brady Kasper home run, but then fell into the fielding/free pass trap they have shown the willingness to walk into in the 3rd. A Jabin Trosky throwing error allowed the leadoff runner to reach base, and another double and walk loaded the bases for Roch Cholowsky, who deposited the ball over the centerfield wall for a grand slam. The Bruins tacked on another run before Kmatz was pulled in favor of Oakes and the Beavers headed to the bottom half of the inning in a 6-1 deficit. The Beaver offense got right back to work, putting the first four runners on base while Kasper cleaned up with his second home run in as many innings. Trosky made up for his error with his first career home run and the Beavs left the inning with an 8-6 lead. Both teams went back and forth against the bullpens over the next four innings, but the Beavers were able to hand the ball to Bridger Holmes with an 11-10 lead in the 9th. Holmes could not hang on, as his penchant for hitting batters came to the forefront with two outs, and the junior hit two consecutive Bruins to drive in a run and tie the game. Fortunately, the Bruins Ruff was willing to return the favor and loaded the bases via an Easton Talt single, a Wilson Weber hit-by-pitch, and a Travis Bazzana intentional walk. Talt was thrown out at home on a ground ball by McDowell, but Macias was able to bring the Beavs home with a bases loaded walk on a 9 pitch at bat to secure the series.

Sunday - The series finale was all about Travis Bazzana. The Australian drove a ball to right field for an RBI double and his 239th hit in a Beaver uniform. That passed Darwin Barney for the Oregon State career record and yet another milestone in the OSU record books. Bazzana would go on to score two more times in the game, largely thanks to Micah McDowell, who had the Beavers second two home run game of the weekend hitting directly behind him. Eric Segura had a bounce back outing, completing five innings and allowing just 3 hits and one run, and the game ended in the 7th at 15-1 thanks to the 10-run mercy rule going into effect on the series finale and travel day.

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What We Learned

Oregon State needed to take care of business this weekend and they did. Even Saturday’s back-and-forth mayhem ended up showing the Beavs’ ability to bounce back from their own mistakes and still come away with a win, something they will almost certainly need to do at some point if they are going to make a deep run in the tournament given the defensive track record this year. Outside of one bad outing by Nelson Keljo and Holmes adventures on Saturday the bullpen did good work and the bats remained hot.

OSU did not solidify a regional hosting spot with this weekend's performance, but they did a lot to lay the groundwork and maybe build a small margin for error in the upcoming series against Arizona and the Pac-12 tournament. The Beavers will still likely need to have a good showing in at least one of those to play postseason baseball in Corvallis.

The Wildcats took two out of three at Utah last weekend to set up regular season Pac-12 finale between two top-15 teams this coming weekend in Tuson. We will have more to say about that matchup later this week.

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Batting Line of the Week

Travis Bazzana Batting Line - 16 PA, .364/.563/.455, 0 HR, 1 RBI

Bazzana is now the Oregon State career home run, hits, stolen bases, and walks, and has a real chance at setting the doubles record as well. The Beavers have been blessed with superstar talent over the last 20 years, from Jacoby Ellsbury, Michael Conforto, Adley Rutchman, Nick Madrigal, and Jacob Melton to name a few. The fact that Bazzana holds nearly every hitting record on the books over that group is a testament to his talent and production in his three years in Corvallis.

Non-Travis Bazzana Batting Line: Micah McDowell - 16 PA, .538/.625/1.308, 3 HR, 8 RBI

We like to rotate this section between different Beaver hitters, but it’s impossible not to recognize the absurd performance that McDowell put together this weekend. He had multiple hits in every game of the series and manned centerfield for three straight games for the first time since March 24th. It's not a coincidence the Beaver offense has started to roll with McDowell and Kasper back as regulars in the lineup. McDowell in particular was the Beavers’ second-best hitter before he was hurt and seems to be back at that level in the stretch run of the season.

Pitching Line of the Week

Ian Lawson - 1 APP, 3 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 4 K, 1 BB

On a weekend that included a celebration of the team’s seniors, its only appropriate that McDowell and Lawson get some recognition. Lawson picked up the first save of his career shutting out UCLA over three innings on Friday. It has not been the best season for the 6-7 righthander from Hillsborough, who has an ERA that is nearly a run higher than last year and will likely not reach the 36 innings pitched he racked up last year either. All that said, Lawson is one of a number of relivers that have seen regular action that have the opportunity to step into high leverage opportunities over the next few weeks and push the Beavers to Omaha.

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Pac-12 Power Rankings

Even with a series win against San Jose State, Cal is likely on the outside looking in for the NCAA tournament. The same may be the case for Utah, who will need a good run in the Pac-12 tournament to build on their RPI of 73 to make the case for an at large bid. That leads to the very disappointing conclusion that in the final year of one of the best baseball conferences in the history of the sport, only three teams are likely to make the tournament. Both Oregon State and Arizona are in the mix to host, making next weekend’s matchup as high stakes as a regular season matchup can get.

1. (NC) Oregon State. Swept UCLA at home 3-0 (38-12)
2. (NC) Arizona. Won series @ Utah 2-1 (19-14)
3. (NC) Oregon. Won series @ Washington 2-1 (24-16)
4. (NC) Utah. Lost series vs Arizona 1-2 (14-19)
5. (NC) California. Won series vs San Jose State 2-1 (13-15)
6. (NC) Arizona State. Swept series @ Stanford 3-0 (39-9)
7. (NC) Washington. Lost series vs Oregon 1-2 (16-24)
8. (Up 1) USC. Won series @ Washington State 2-1 (27-27)
9. (Up 1) Washington State. Lost series vs USC 1-2 (27-27)
10. (Down 2) Stanford. Swept at home by Arizona State 0-3 (9-39)
11. (NC) UCLA. Swept @ Oregon State 0-3 (12-38)