On a crisp Friday evening at Goss Stadium, the Oregon State Beavers baseball team suffered their first home loss of the season.

Going out in a blow to the University of California at Irvine Anteaters 12 to nothing, and now snapping their previous undefeated record.

The Beavers returned home from Lincoln, Nebraska, following a defeat in a three-game series against the Cornhuskers. They began a new three-game series against the Anteaters.

Sitting as the No. 5 ranked team in the nation at the start of their matchup against Nebraska, but their underwhelming performance in Lincoln resulted in them dropping to No. 11. Still, remaining in the top 15 in rankings is nothing to scoff at. 

The game saw an ugly start for the Beavs. 

The Anteaters loaded the second and third bases, with Chase Call batting a ball deep and allowing both teammates on bases to take home. Dropping OSU in an early 0-2 lead at the top of the first. 

“Balanced, I didn’t see a lot of over swings; they used the left side of the field very well,” head coach Mitch Canham said. 

Thankfully for the Beavs,  pitchers Nelson Keljo, Zach Kmatz, and Eric Segura kept them in this for the next three and a half innings, pitching seven combined strikeouts and having an ERA average of 3.09. 

However, a series of heartbreaks for OSU began. 

Setting the second and third bases in the bottom of the fourth, Anteater pitcher Riley Kelly struck out Tanner Douglas for the Beavs and blew a promising chance to get on the board. 

“We didn’t get it done,” Canham said. “We left runners on base(s). You need to get them on, you need to get them off, and we didn’t do any of that today.” 

Next, with the bases loaded at the bottom of the fifth, after a gorgeous flying long ball by Jacob Kreig, on the following attempt to throw up four runs, Kelly threw his eighth strikeout of the night at the time. The silence of the crowd hung in Goss after forcing all three bases to return to the dugout empty-handed. 

Finally, at the top of the sixth, the Anteaters slide the dagger, with four runs, to take a daunting lead 6-0.  One that proved to be too big to overcome, and OSU was out of tricks in their bag to stay in it.

With six more runs after, one at the top of the eighth and a whopping five at the top of the ninth, the Beavers were put to bed.

“They beat us in every aspect of the game,” Canham said. “But that is a postseason type of environment, you’re gonna play against a team that is really good, in front of a packed house, and that’s the reality. So now we (just) move on, and that’s where we are now.” 

OSU will dust themselves off with game two against the Anteaters tomorrow back at Goss, Saturday at 1:35 p.m.