Baseball weather has a different meaning in Oregon.
Typically, baseball is synonymous with sunshine and clear skies. But, when it has been 271 days since the Beavers played a game in Corvallis, not much will deter the home crowd from showing out.
That proved to be true as the 18th-ranked Oregon State Beavers (7-4) faced the Xavier Musketeers (5-7) under a drizzly Friday night sky.
Riding high off of Tuesday’s win over in-state rival, The University of Oregon, the Beavers took on a young Musketeer team for the home opener at Goss Stadium.
To open up their first home series of the 2026 season, Head Coach Mitch Canham gave sophomore Dax Whitney the nod to start at pitcher. Whitney has come out firing this season, entering Friday leading the nation in strikeouts with 34 in 18 innings.
On the other side, Xavier’s Ryan Piech looked to face off against Whitney as he similarly posted impressive numbers to begin the season. In 14 innings, he has posted a 1.93 ERA while allowing only a .106 batting average.
In the first inning, Oregon State sat Xavier down in order with a spectacular diving catch from right-fielder Adam Haight ending the top half of the inning. The Beavers followed that up with three loud flyouts.
After giving up a lead-off walk, the Musketeers went down in order, and Dax Whitney collected his second strikeout.
Then, with one out in the second inning, that loud contact came to fruition as Bryce Hubbard clobbered a fastball. Opening up the scoring for the game, sending a homerun over the right-field fence.
The scoring didn’t stop there for the Beavers either. A.J. Singer followed up the solo shot with a single to left field. Cooper Vance took first after getting hit by a pitch. And after a strikeout from Paul Vazquez, Ethan Porter worked a two-strike count all the way to a walk, loading the bases for the top of the order.
An Easton Talt walk brought Singer home and made the score 2-0 for Oregon State.
Adam Haight would then send the 1-0 pitch right back at Piech, who narrowly avoided the line drive. By the time the centerfielder was able to get the ball back in, Vance and Porter had scored, making the score 4-0 for the Beavers.
With runners on first and third, Xavier was able to end the inning. But the damage was already done as Piech worked all the way up to 47 pitches in just 2 innings.
After that, Whitney re-entered the game.
In the top of the third inning, Whitney struck out the side. The following inning, Xavier went three up, three down with 2 batters striking out.
It became clear the Musketeers were losing the mental game against Whitney as he sat batters down in bunches.
When asked how that built his confidence, Whitney said that he felt he was “In the driver seat” against the opposing batters.
That confidence only grew stronger as he struck out two more batters to open up the fifth. But Xavier finally got to Whitney as Landon Mensik crushed a 1-2 pitch over the left field wall. Still, Oregon State was able to move past that with a flyout ending the top half of the inning.
Relieving Piech was Evan Vasilou. Vasilou, impressed as he pitched to contact and gave up no runs in four innings.
Meanwhile, Whitney was one strikeout away from earning fans a free McMuffin. Of course, he delivered as he earned his tenth and eleventh strikeouts of the game.
“I’m a McGriddle guy,” Whitney joked when asked if he was going to capitalize on the free McMuffin.
With one out in the seventh, Wyatt Queen relieved Whitney. Keeping the ball rolling, he posted four strikeouts in two innings of work with one runner reaching base on a throwing error.
The Beavers decided to bring in Albert Robles to get the last out. Fittingly, he ended the game with a swinging strikeout to secure the save and 4-2 victory.
After a long road trip, the appreciation for Goss Stadium was on everyone’s minds. Singer summed it up best as he said, “There’s no crowd like Goss.”