Travis Bazzana broke multiple records Tuesday night, totaling 384 total career bases on a first-inning triple, and breaking the record for most home runs in Oregon State History, hitting his 35th in the fourth inning.
“He is a phenomenal baseball player, human being, big heart, big passion”, Head Coach Mitch Canham said. “He had a great diving play as well, obviously he is really fun to watch play, and he goes about his business the right way.”
The Beavers extended their home winning streak to 20, which is third in the nation, as they took down the University of Portland Pilots 11-8 on Tuesday night at Goss Stadium.
With runners on first and third, Bazzana stepped up to the plate and crushed the first pitch he saw to deep right field for a 3-RBI home run, giving the home squad a four-run lead at the time.
“Did a little negotiating, signed bat, a couple signed balls and it was all good, wasn’t sure what it would look like if someone got the ball that wasn’t working for Oregon State, but I figured it would be something like that,” Bazzana said.
During the historical at-bat, when he made contact, two words resonated through his mind: stay fair.
“Stay fair. It had a little bit of hook to it, I knew it was staying fair, I was just a little worried. I hit it good I was just kinda thinking stay fair, and once I saw the first base umpire I was like, alright, done it,” Bazzana said.
Along with Bazzana, junior Mason Guerra and sophomore Elijah Hainline joined him, both hitting home runs to left center.
After Bazzana hit his home run, his next at-bat he was intentionally walked with runners on second and third to load the bases, showing how much talent he adds to the team
The scoring got started off early for both squads, as a throwing error saw the Pilots strike first on a single to center field, taking the lead 1-0 in the first.
The Beavers tied the game back up at one, as Guerra hit a sacrifice fly to score Bazzana after his lead-off triple. The Beavers then took their first lead of the game with an RBI single by freshman Canon Reeder to lead 2-1.
The Pilots retook the lead in the top of the third inning with a 2-RBI single by Jonas Salk, 3-2, but was short-lived as the Beavers erupted for a five-run fourth inning.
The inning started off with a single by sophomore Dallas Macias, followed by a walk by junior Wilson Weber. Sophomore Tyce Peterson then drove in Macias with a single to left field.
Bazzana then hit the record-setting home run, driving in three, and Guerra hit his seventh home run of the season later in the inning. The Beavers led 7-3 after the huge hitting performance.
Portland didn’t give up though, as even with two outs, they capitalized off a Hainline error to score three runs, cutting the deficit to only one, 7-6.
Hainline got one of the runs back that he gave up with the error, hitting one of the team’s three home runs to get the lead back up to two, 8-6.
“That’s a good way to respond to it,” Canham said about the home run following the costly error. “There are times that he tries to maybe overswing because he wants to produce for everybody, but that one looked like a simple lets hit the baseball hard and good things happen.”
The Pilots got right back into the game in the seventh, tying the game up on an RBI groundout, followed by a sacrifice fly to plate the tying runs.
The bottom of the seventh saw the Beavers retake the lead with a bases-loaded walk drawn by Guerra. Then sophomore Jacob Krieg singled up the middle to drive in two more runs to get the lead up to three, 11-8.
These were the last runs scored in the game, and Bridger Holmes came into the game in the top of the ninth to record his seventh save of the season.
Up next, the Beavers face the Stanford University Cardinal on April 12th back at Goss Stadium at 6 pm.
