On a rainy Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium, Oregon State baseball beat UC Irvine 7-4 in the final rubber match. 

“I was excited to see how they responded. After yesterday’s win and then to come out and do it again today, it goes to identifying what we want this environment to be in a big weekend series.” said head coach Mitch Canham

Oregon State began with a strong start from sophomore pitcher Ethan Kleinschmit. Striking out the first three batters of the game.

The first Beaver to make it on base would be senior Wilson Weber, who outran a ground ball thrown by the shortstop Colin Yeaman to first base in the third inning.

Weber was then pushed to second by a ground ball from A.J. Singer. The UC Irvine senior Will Bermudez tripped as he fielded the ball but managed to one-hop it close enough for the shortstop to dive and pick the ball with his foot still on the bag, securing a forceout.

The Beavers would show their side of close calls at the start of the third inning with junior first basemen Jacob Kreig diving to stop a ball and then completing a throw while laying on his side to Kleinschmit, who ran over from the mound, beating the baserunner, by milliseconds to end the inning.

Junior Canon Reeder would be the first Beaver to score after advancing from first to third after consecutive errors by Bermudez. He wouldn’t be the only one to get home on mistakes by Irvine. He was followed by freshman Carson McEntire, who stole home off a wild pitch, and junior Easton Talt, who crossed the plate after a dropped line drive by UC junior Anthony Martinez.

Martinez would lead off the fourth inning and cut into Oregon State’s three-run lead with a home run to right-center field.

With rain beginning to fall, OSU junior Aiva Arquette put the Beavers back up by three off a triple by junior Gavin Turley.

“Gavin has been absolutely phenomenal, he’s probably the heart of the lineup right now, he’s absolutely killing it,” said junior Kellan Oakes.

However, this would not last long. With a man already on base for UC Irvine in the fifth, junior Colin Yeaman slammed a two-run homer to left field. This would call for an Oregon State pitching change. Kleinschmit ended the day with eight strikeouts, just one off of his career high.

“Fastball and slider were working well. Mixed in a few change-ups, got some weak contact,” said Kleinschmit.

With the bases loaded at the bottom of the sixth, Arquette hit a deep liner into the right field to drive two runs home, followed by Turley driving in one to make it a three-run inning.

Irvine began to apply pressure in the seventh, loading the bases twice. Oregon State was able to escape by only letting up one run.

Yet the Beavers’ offensive onslaught was enough for them to seal the game and win the series, advancing to 22-7. 

Oregon State will move on to their next matchup, a single game against the Portland Pilots on April 8 at 5:35 p.m. in Hillsboro, Oregon.