The Oregon State Beavers win another series and take a step closer to hosting a regional after the regular season ends. Yes, the Ducks prevailed Sunday at PK Park 3-2 but the Oregon State bullpen pitched seven scoreless innings and Alex McGarry did hit his seventh homer of the season. Now its a final non-conference game of the season Tuesday in Corvallis against the Portland Pilots. Oregon State has been awful on Tuesday currently on a five-game losing streak. Game time tomorrow at Goss Stadium is 5:35 pm.
Mike Parker will have the pregame coverage at 5:pm on 102.3FM in the Portland-Vancouver area.
The Portland game sets up a huge weekend in Palo Alto beginning Friday. So much could be on the line for Oregon State regarding post-season positioning. Currently the Beavers are ranked 18 in the NCAA D1 RPI. Stanford is number 16. UCLA is number two!
Take a look at the top of the Pac-12 Standings:
Oregon State 19-5
Stanford 19-5
UCLA 19-5
Arizona St. 14-10
Cal 14-10
So the three games against Stanford on the road could determine if the Beavers get home games in the Regional or head out on the road.
Here is Sunday's official game story from OSU Athletics:
Alex McGarry hit his seventh home run of the season and the Oregon State bullpen combined for seven scoreless innings but the Beavers dropped the series finale to Oregon, 3-2 Sunday at PK Park.
Despite the loss, Oregon State prevailed in the series versus the Ducks after winning game one, 4-1, and game two, 8-5. claimed the Civil War Series presented by PacificSource Health Plans, Spirit Mountain Casino, Safeway-Albertsons, Your Local Toyota Dealers and First Interstate Bank for the third consecutive season.
McGarry hit the first pitch of the eighth inning over the right field fence to make it a one-run game. Oregon State later loaded the bases with two down in the eighth, but Oregon reliever Ryne Nelson got Adley Rutschman swinging to end the frame.
The Beavers rallied again against Nelson, who escaped a two-on, two-out scenario by getting Jake Dukart looking. He earned the win after 6 1/3 innings to improve to 3-4.
Dukart opened the Beavers' scoring with a single in the sixth off Nelson. With Oregon (25-24 overall, 9-15 Pac-12 Conference) up 3-0,Tyler Malone walked, moved to second on a McGarry single and scored when Dukart singled to right.
Joey Mundt andJake Mulholland combined for seven innings of scoreless relief. Mundt worked 3 2/3 innings, striking out five, while Mulholland went 2 1/3 innings. He struck out three.
McGarry went 3-for-5 to lead the Oregon State (33-15-1, 19-5) offense, which finished with 12 hits but also left a season-high 15 on base.
Next Up
Oregon State returns to Goss Stadium at Coleman Field Tuesday for the Beavers' final non-conference game of the regular season. OSU hosts Portland at 5:35 p.m. PT.