Three Beavers combined for five home runs in a 20-7 victory Thursday at Goss Stadium as Oregon State (37-16) began their final series of the 2023 regular season against the Western Carolina Catamounts (21-30). 

Both Gavin Turley and Garret Forrester hit two two-run home runs in back-to-back at-bats, aiding the Beavers with a combined 11 runs batted in. These two were not alone in the home run column as right fielder Brady Kasper hit a four-bagger of his own.  

“They always are talking about moving the fences in,” Beavers head coach Mitch Canham said, sounding slightly bemused. “These guys just love to hit. Pretty much everyone up and down the lineup is putting balls over the fence. The mentality at the plate is to get a good pitch to hit and hit it as hard as you can,” Canham said.

Once again, the Beaver baseball record books have been attacked by the starting lineup Thursday night. Forrester now sits ninth overall in career runs batted in (RBI) with 138. He surpassed current Beaver coach Darwin Barney (136, 2005-07). In addition, with the Beaver’s slew of home runs they set a new single-season record beating the 2018 National Championship team (67).

Alpharetta, Georgia native Ben Ferrer (2-1) started his third game of the season in preparation for Pac-12 tournament play that begins next week. Ferrer got off to a rocky start giving up a two-run bomb in the second inning.

“I never like giving up runs, especially home runs,” Ferrer said. “After that happened I got a little pissed off, re-settled, stopped using so much effort, and located my pitches.”

Ferrer finished his strong outing with five and one-third innings, giving up five hits, four earned runs, and striking out eight Catamount batters. 

“Nobody wanted to take him (Ferrer) out of the game,” Canham said. “You love to watch that guy compete and it happens day-in-day-out and the other players feed off it too.”

Turley showed Beaver Nation all the firepower he brings to the table, setting a 2023 season single-game record with seven RBIs. Four of his seven came from the long ball but the record-breaking RBI came by way of a walk proving Turley’s discipline at the plate.

The Beavers continue their three-game set against the Western Carolina Catamounts Friday at 5:35 p.m. According to Beaver Baseball, Jacob Kmatz (4-4, 4.39) is the probable starter.