“Nothing really matters besides winning,” first-baseman Mason Guerra said.
Pacific Northwest rain showed off Sunday evening at Goss stadium as players slid over bases and batters got hit by wobbly pitches, NCAA umpires decided to suspend gameplay until Monday afternoon.
The Beaver offense excelled in their performance throughout the two-day spanned game, pulling off a win against the University of California, Irvine 11-6 in Goss.
“Post-season baseball is a little different from the regular season,” Guerra said.
“The guys are playing loose and having fun and it’s all about the team at this point. To do that in front of Beaver Nation…was super special and I’m glad I could experience that, we all could experience that,” Micah McDowell added.
After starting pitcher Eric Segura allowed four runs by the Anteater’s offense, the Beavers’ lineup showcased their strength in batters.
Shortstop Elijah Hainline homered in the second inning bringing home three runners.
“Elijah came up with a huge homer yesterday and guys are getting walks, guys are getting on base,” head coach Mitch Canham said.
When asked about the production of the bottom of the lineup and the depth of the players, McDowell said, “It’s just relentless one through nine and some. I think it just wears a pitcher down overtime and you see that.”
“If we’re not going early on, the bottom of the order just makes them pay with a mistake so I think it is just one through nine wearing the pitchers down, making them make good pitches and it’s probably a little annoying for them, but the bottom of the order was huge this weekend,” McDowell said.
The Anteaters struggled to put up runs on the board throughout the remainder of the game after the first-inning success. They scored one run in both the fourth and fifth innings and were silenced throughout the following innings.
The Beaver kept producing runs, becoming unstoppable through their lineup.
“These guys have become the standard on the west and if you want to go to Omaha, it feels like you have to go through Corvallis and it goes through Oregon State,” Anteaters head coach Ben Orloff said.
In the remaining game time on Monday, there was a homerun by Guerra and Dallas Macias in the eighth and ninth innings.
“Very impressed with how our guys continued to climb…Offensively, 18 hours ago responding back after giving up four in the first and scoring five and then continuing where they left off last night continuing to put up runs,” Canham said. “You know we were joking about how many runs were gonna score today just cause the energy, the way they’re going about their business, the confidence in the box, the approach.”
The Beavers are off to Lexington, Kentucky to take on University of Kentucky Wildcats on their home field in the super regional in a best-of-three series. The times and dates are to be determined Tuesday at 7 a.m.