A couple of months removed from their regional loss against Louisiana State University, the Oregon State Beavers are determined to reach Omaha and the College World Series once again. 

The beginning of the road to Omaha is the second game of the yearly intrasquad Fall Orange and Black scrimmage, which occurred on Oct. 28 at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. The afternoon scrimmage offered fans a glimpse of the 2024 Oregon State baseball team. 

Bolstered in pitching was the last remaining piece the Beavers needed to make a postseason push for this upcoming season.

Junior Arizona transfer Aiden May, is an excellent addition to the pitching staff with the potential of being the Friday night option to toe the slab. May led the team in strikeouts (77) while fanning five or more hitters in 10 of his 16 starts with the Wildcats. 

May started for the Black team and posted a final line of three innings pitched, one run, three strikeouts, a single hit, three walks, and one beaned hitter.

The Opposing starting pitcher for team Orange was Eric Segura. The Freshman held his own against a star-studded lineup on the Black team. Including Travis Bazzana, 2023 Cape Cod league MVP at the top of the lineup.

Segura pitched two innings for the Orange team and ended his day on the bump with no runs, two punch outs, a hit, and two walks. 

Senior Brady Casper, got team Orange onto the scoreboard first by hitting a sacrifice fly to score Elijah Hainline, giving them a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third. 

Team Orange wouldn’t give up the lead the rest of the game. They would extend their lead thanks to a few passed balls and a Levi Jones single to give them a 3-0 lead.

It wouldn’t take long for team Black to show life as Mason Guerra ripped a single to score Bazzana to dwindle team Orange’s lead to 3-1. 

They continued this momentum with a Dallas Macias single to put runners on first and third. Jabin Trosky smacked a single to right field to put team Black down one run in the bottom of the fifth.

Tephen Montgomery, a sophomore right-handed pitcher, came in with runners on and eliminated the threat by team Black. 

With team Black cutting into their lead team Orange successfully got runners on, and with Dawson Santana at the plate, he delivered a triple scoring the runners and extending their lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the sixth.

Kyle Scott, the senior right-handed pitcher, came in for team Orange looking to close out the game, and that’s exactly what he did as he tossed a three up and three down inning with two strikeouts—giving team Orange the victory 5-2 in a hard-fought Orange & Black Scrimmage.

Both sides showed resilience on offense and defense. The pitchers showed improvement in pitching through jams and controlling the game. The hitters put together quality at-bats worked the count and weren’t chasing pitches outside the zone.

This is only a small sample of the potential of this Oregon State squad who is poised to have a breakout year and finally get over the hump, and make it to the final destination, Omaha. 

When the rain in the Pacific Northwest finally decides to slow down the sun peaks out again in the spring it will be time for another exciting season of Beaver baseball under the helm of head coach Mitch Canham.