The Oregon State Beavers were back home at Goss Stadium this week after being on the road in California.

In a three-game series, the Beavs took on the Long State Beach Elbees with the first game taking place Thursday evening.

The game started smoothly as both teams got familiar with each other’s plays while also having good contact with the ball. The first change came in the top of the second inning when OSU’s starting pitcher, junior Jake Pfennigs, who was back on the mound today after being out the start of the season with an injury, was taken out and replaced with junior Brock Townsend. Townsend managed to shut down a lot of close calls throughout the game and only gave up one run until the bottom of the sixth inning when junior Ben Ferrer took over. Finally, the game was finished off with redshirt freshman Ryan Brown at the top of the ninth inning.

The bottom of the third brought some excitement to the fans at Goss as the Beavers managed to put some numbers on the board. After sophomore Kyle Dernedde walked to first, junior Wade Meckler singled to second base and helped his teammate advance to second. Once freshman Travis Bazzana stepped up to the plate, he grounded out to third base with a SAC bunt and moved Meckler to second and Dernedde to third.

Next up, sophomore Justin Boyd also walked to first base and sophomore Garrett Forrester struck out swinging closely after. The final piece of the puzzle seemed to be junior Gavin Logan, as he also walked and gained an RBI, bringing Dernedde home, Meckler to third, and Boyd to second. This gave the Beavers a lead of 1-0. Junior TJ Wheeler then singled up the middle gaining 2 RBI as he brought home Boyd and Meckler and moved Logan to second, giving the Beavers a lead of 3-0.

The Elbees did put up a score of 1 in the top of the sixth inning, with all the credit given to junior Chase Luttrell, as he homered to right field and earned an RBI for his team. This made the score 3-1 with OSU still leading in the sixth.

The Beavers got the win in the first game of the series with the remaining score of 3-1. What made the game a special one, aside from the win, was the return of Wheeler and Pfennigs. Both with injuries that took them off the field for a bit, Wheeler with a head injury and Pfennigs with a shoulder injury, it was a special feeling for the “DL Squad” to make their comeback together. When asked what exactly the “DL Squad” was, both Beavers pegged it as a nickname to get through the time away from playing ball, “Wheeler kept saying it and I’m like ‘All right, we’re really rolling with this.”

All jokes aside, each player was excited to not only be back with their teammates but also to help them out in any way possible, “It’s just nice to score some runs on the boards,” Wheeler says. “Did my celebration that I haven’t done for a long time, obviously. And yeah, it’s nice to be out there”. We were joking about it the whole day,” Pfennigs explains. “We were like ‘DL Squad is back. Boys are back!”

Fans can catch the next game of the series against Long Beach State on Friday, April 15 inside of Goss Stadium, with the first pitch being thrown at 5:35.