The Beaver baseball team put on a pitching and hitting clinic in their 2023 season home opener against Coppin State on Friday.

This is the first game in program history against the Coppin State Eagles. The Beaver’s first game since beginning the season in Arizona gave their fans a lot to get excited about. Whether it was the electric arm of starting pitcher Trent Sellers or the powerful bat of right fielder Gavin Turley, Beaver fans got a preview of the star power this team carries.

“Seeing all the fans here, it’s sub 30 degrees and they stuck around, they were electric the whole night and it gave our guys a lot of confidence,” said Trent Sellers on the impact Beaver Nation had on their Friday night win.

Sellers was under the weather before his start, but effortlessly struck out the side in the top of the 1st. He did have to work his way out of a jam at the top of the second. A 2-out double from Eagle’s second baseman Corey Miley put runners on first and third. Sellers stayed determined and earned his first-looking strikeout of the game. 

Sellers spoke on his stellar start on the mound, “This outing I was trying to work my fastball lower in the zone, fortunately, they couldn’t hit the fastball well and I took advantage of it.”

In his first at-bat at Goss Stadium Freshman standout, Gavin Turley (2 for 2 HR, 2 RBIs, 2 BB, 2 R) took Coppin State pitcher Liam McCallum deep for a home run to right field for the first run of the game.

Through three and a half innings Trent had six strikeouts and no runs allowed. 

The Beavers worked a relentless bottom half of the third inning. A leadoff double from Travis Bazzana (1 for 3, R) helped spark the rally. Masson Guerra (1 for 4, RBI, BB, R) would ground into a 6-4-3 double play, while still allowing Turley to score. A string of three walks would lead to OSU’s fourth run of the game. 

Sellers closed out a strong fourth inning striking out the side for the second time in the game. Continuing this trend in the fifth, he would go on to strike out two more batters bringing his total to 11.

Sellers would go 5 1/3 striking out 12 only surrendering a pair of walks and no earned runs. His first start in Corvallis showed the firepower he brings to the rotation. 

The Beavers would erupt for three more runs in the bottom of the fifth. Freshman Jacob Krieg would etch his first hit, RBI, and run of his early Beaver baseball career. He would end his Goss Stadium debut with 4 runs batted in. Coach Canham commended his approach at the plate all night. 

Freshman Aiden Jimenez (1.2, 2 hits, 0 ER) would come into the game with runners on 1st and 2nd but would escape the jam with a double play.

Head coach Mitch Canham spoke on the importance of Jimenez’s outing

“To be a freshman and be able to mix pitches and throw a 93 mph fastball and an 86 mph splitter, those are great things that is gonna keep getting him the ball,” said Canham.

Victor Quinn would enter the game in the top of the 8th inning giving up no hits but he would surrender three walks and give Coppin State their only earned run of the game coming from a sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth.

Turley added to his incredible day with an RBI single that extended the lead to seven for the Beavers.

Kyle Dernedde would put his mark on the game with a deep three-run home run to left field putting the Beaver lead into double digits in the sixth inning. 

Senior Braden Boisvert made his second appearance of 2023 to work his first save of the fresh 2023 season. 

The Beavers will continue their three-game series against Coppin State Saturday at 1:35 p.m. and close out the matchup on Sunday at 1:05 p.m. Saturday’s probable starter is the 6 ‘3 Sophomore Jacob Kmatz.