CORVALLIS — It was about this time last week, after the Oregon State baseball team suffered a disheartening sweep to the Cal Bears, that coach Mitch Canham gathered the Beavers for a poignant chat.
His team was in the middle of a season-long four-game losing streak. It had hardened three walk-off heartbreakers. And it had tumbled from first to fourth place in the Pac-12 Conference.
Even so, Canham said, it was no time to panic.
“The message was, adversity is coming,” sophomore Jabin Trosky said. “And during these moments, we’ve just got to keep pushing…forward. We have a big series here at home and (we) play well at home. It was just, move on, keep going, have a hard practice and find ways to win.”
The message, it appears, was received.
The No. 9 Beavers defeated the No. 22 Oregon Ducks 4-2 Saturday night at Goss Stadium, using exceptional pitching, an RBI chopper and a clutch two-run single to survive an entertaining, down-to-the-wire matchup in Corvallis . The victory, which came one night after a 2-0 triumph, delivered OSU (33-9, 12-7 Pac-12) a victory in the three-game series and moved them within 1 ½ games of first-place Arizona (26 -15, 14-6) in the Pac-12 standings.
After spending most of the season leaning on their explosive lineup, the Beavers have used inspiring pitching — and a few clutch hits — to dismiss their rivals. It was Aiden May’s brilliance that carried OSU to a win in the opener, and it was Jacob Kmatz and the bullpen that locked the series on Saturday.
Kmatz had another memorable performance in his bounceback season, toying with the Ducks (28-14, 11-9) over 6 1/3 dominant innings. The 6-foot-3 junior finished with 10 strikeouts, tying his career high, and allowed just one run on two hits. His only blemish was Drew Smith’s third-inning home run. Otherwise, Kmatz was practically unhittable.
“Jacob was filthy,” Trosky said. “He pounded the zone, threw strikes, let our defense work. The defense had a good game, too, (with) zero errors. But that was really impressive. “He’s a bulldog, and he competes every time he’s out there.”
The only thing preventing Kmatz from his sixth win of the season was Ducks starter Grayson Grinsell, who had an equally impressive outing. The sophomore left-hander had his way with the Beavers’ potent lineup, giving up just two earned runs on four hits, while striking out eight, over six innings.
In the end, the game was decided by the bullpen and late-game hitting, and Oregon State was just a hair better at both.
Trosky gave Oregon State its first lead in the seventh, when he drove home Brady Kasper with an infield single off Oregon reliever Brock Moore, whose fastball touches triple digits. The Beavers’ sophomore infielder — who said he has never faced a pitcher with more heat — worked a 2-2 count before nubbing a chopper to shortstop with two outs, delivering the go-ahead run.
“The guy was throwing real hard and I just refused to strike out,” Trosky said. “That was my mindset. So I was like, I’ve just got to put bat on ball, and sometimes good things happen. And luckily, good things happened there.”
The Ducks responded in the eighth, however, when Mason Neville crushed a leadoff triple off the left field fence and later scored on a one-out sacrifice fly from Smith, tying the game 2-2.
But the Ducks’ momentum was short lived as Oregon State plated a pair of runs at the bottom of the eighth off Logan Mercado, who was named to the Stopper of the Year midseason watch list last week. Wilson Weber started the rally with a one-out walk, then moved to second base on a Jacob Krieg single. Kasper followed with a groundout to first base, moving both runners into scoring position and sending Elijah Hainline to the plate with two outs.
The Beavers’ starting shortstop didn’t waste any time delivering their biggest hit with the Beavers, ripping a single to left field to score Weber and Krieg and give OSU a 4-2 lead.
“I know he throws a lot of off-speed pitches,” Hainline said of Mercado. “So he just threw a slider over the middle and… I was just trying to get my swing off and got it.”
That opened the door for Bridger Holmes to close another win and he did so emphatically, wrapping three strikeouts around a walk to earn his 10th save of the season. After taking his lumps last week during the Beavers’ skid — Holmes took three of the four losses — he has regained his dominant ways against the Ducks, saving both games in dominant fashion.
Joey Mundt (2-0) earned the win with a solid 1 2/3 innings of relief, allowing one run and striking out two. And between May, Kmatz, Mundt and Holmes, a team that has slugged its way into the top 10 has shown this weekend that it’s not exclusively about offense.
In two games against the Ducks, who entered the series with the second-best offense in the Pac-12, the Beavers pitching staff has allowed just four hits, two walks and two runs, while striking out 29 in 18 innings.
Along the way, the adversity that surfaced at Cal seems more like a blip on the radar than a legitimate concern.
“We’re the best team and we’re going to show it and continue to show it throughout the year,” Hainline said. “And we’re going to make a run at Omaha no matter what.”
Next up: The Beavers and Ducks conclude their three-game series Sunday at 2:05 pm at Goss Stadium.
—Joe Freeman | [email protected] | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
