Oregon State Baseball’s bats keep them alive, 13-8, in their sloppy defensive game against PAC-12 foe, Arizona State at Goss Stadium on April 5.
This offensive showdown marks their 24th win of the season and 17th straight home game win. They hold the third-longest active streak in the nation.
“The offense was relentless,” Head Coach Mitch Canham said. “It was great to see a lot of professional at-bats.”
Right-handed pitcher Aiden May made his third appearance at Goss Stadium under the Friday night lights.
After a first-pitch groundout to short, May walked the second and third hitters. Arizona State’s Kien Vu worked the count full but struck out on an attempted hit and run. Catcher Wilson Weber gunned it to third, retiring Ryan Campos to end the inning.
Travis Bazzana started the game in a hurry. After a seven-pitch battle, Bazzana sent a deep fly ball to right field tallying his 17th home run and sixth leadoff home run of the season.
His 34th career home run ties him for the program record among Beaver alumnus, Joe Gerber and Andy Jarvis.
The second baseman continues to make program history; that home run marked his 212th career hit, tying Kavin Keyes in the eighth spot on the Beavers all-time list.
With a .465 batting average coming into the game, Bazzana sits third in the nation and leads the league with 25 extra-base hits.
Bazzana is among 45 collegiate ballplayers and only two PAC-12 players to make the midseason Golden Spikes watchlist, an annual award given to the best amateur baseball player in the nation.
“I look up to a lot of the people that I am right around or surpassing,” Bazzana said about his home run record tonight. “It’s an extra bonus of being in such a good program.”
Wilson Webber found himself touching all four bases to lead off the bottom of the second; fighting back from an 0-2 count, Webber smashed a 437-foot home run off the batter’s eye.
This marked his first homer of the season, putting the Beavs up 2-0.
Mild chaos ensued after a three-run inning for the Beavers. A few wild pitches and a missed opportunity to get an out at home allowed the Sun Devils to close the gap.
Jacob Krieg hit a screaming line drive to left scoring Guerra, and a throwing error at the plate put the ball out of play to bring Krieg home, putting the Beavers up 7-3.
ASU fought back with a pair of singles and an error to close the margin, 7-5 Beavers
Beaver baseball looked to put the nail in the coffin at the bottom of the fifth; however, ASU’s Sean Fitzpatrick got the Sun Devils out of a bases-loaded jam, leaving the Beavers scoreless.
Compton kept the game close with a first-pitch home run to right, 7-6 Beavers, but the bottom of the sixth found itself with another lead-off home run, this time by Jacob Krieg bringing his season total to six.
After a pitching change by Arizona State, the Beavers managed to bump the lead to 10-6 after an intelligent base running performance by Macias and a full-count walk by Gavin Turley.
The top of the seventh was a defensive blunder for OSU, but the damage was contained after a quick recovery from Bazzana after Elijah Hainline bobbled the ball at short.
“Realistically we are not playing clean baseball right now,” Bazzana said. “And we are still winning a good amount of games, so it tells us that our potential to win every game is there.”
After a few nerve-wracking innings defensively, Beaver Baseball managed to hold the Sun Devils to one more run and knock a few more themselves, bringing the final score to 13-8 Beavers.
“The guys all want to hit, and they do a really good job getting after it and making adjustments to the swing,” Canham said. “So the message lately has been to be a professional on defense too.”
A couple of fielding miscommunications and pitches that went astray kept the game closer than the Beavers expected.
“There’s room for growth, so that’s what I take from (the win),” Bazzana said. “We won, yes, but we’ve been doing that.”
While the Beavers look to clean up defensively, they keep marching forward with their sights set on Omaha.
The remaining games with ASU will be played in Goss Stadium on April 6 at 1:35 p.m. and April 7 at 12:05 p.m..