Beaver win Cal series, but search for batting groove continues
Freshman outfielder Gavin Turley showed signs of ending a slump with hits against Cal on Saturday and Sunday (courtesy OSU sports information)
CORVALLIS — Funny how one pitch — a wild one, at that — can alter a team’s collective psyche.
After Travis Bazzana scored from third base on a wild pitch by California reliever Robert Aivazian in the ninth inning Sunday to give Oregon State a 2-1 victory, an important celebration was on.
“We were sitting in the dugout, saying, ‘Walk-off. We want one of these. We need one of these,’ ” OSU coach Mitch Canham said after Sunday’s win, which gave the Beavers their first Pac-12 series win. “It’s a good momentum shift.”
A loss to Cal (10-10 overall, 2-7 in Pac-12 action) would have been devastating for the Beavers (15-9, 3-6), who had lost five of their first six conference games and can’t afford to fall any farther behind in the standings. A three-game sweep of Cal was the goal, but after Saturday’s 2-1 loss to the Golden Bears, the Beavers were all too happy to settle for taking the series.
Bazzana, the sophomore second baseman from Australia who is Oregon State’s best hitter, felt he and his teammates have been playing tight, and pressure was mounting.
“Our scuffling has led to a bit of tension,” said Bazzana, who went 2 for 3 at the plate Sunday. “We have been playing poor baseball throughout because we are pressing. It’s important to limit that. The best thing is to try to be loose, be positive … do the little things right. Today, I tried to take the lead on that by bringing the energy and providing it for the guys, and we ended up with the win.”
Bazzana had led off the ninth with a walk and advanced to third on Cal third baseman Dom South’s throwing error. That brought up freshman center fielder Gavin Turley, perhaps finally shaking out of a slump that had left him dormant at the plate through the Pac-12 schedule so far.
Then Aivazian bounced one to the screen, and the Beavers were gifted a “W.”
“I knew that pitcher was already flustered,” Turley said. “With me coming up to bat, I have a pretty good chance to put the bat on the ball in that situation. As soon as I saw it go by, I knew it was over.”
Oregon State’s offensive issues, however, are hardly over.
The Beavers managed 19 hits in outscoring Cal 9-4 in the series. They are batting .191 with four home runs and a .273 on-base average through nine league games. They haven’t reached double figures in hits yet in a conference tilt and are averaging fewer than four runs a contest.
Turley belted five homers and was hitting nearly .400 in his first 12 college games. Then he hit a wall, beginning an 0 for 18 streak — 0 for 15 in league — with 13 strikeouts. Canham even sat him for three games during that stretch, including Friday night’s opener against Cal. It wasn’t only off-speed stuff Turley was missing. Opposing pitchers were getting him out on high heat and by getting him to chase pitches in the out of the zone.
The 6-1, 190-pound Utah native pinch-hit in a big sixth-inning situation on Saturday and struck out, swinging at what would have been ball three and ball four. In the ninth, however, he laced a single up the middle. On Sunday, Turley had another solid hit and a walk and no strikeouts in his first college start in center field.
“All of it is a learning process,” Turley said with a smile afterward. “I like to see failure as learning. The more I play, the more I learn and the better I get.”
Turley said he didn’t change anything through his skid.
“I never feel like I’m in the dumps or in a slump,” he said. “I might have failed 20 times in a row, but that’s 20 times I figured out how not to something. It’s going to happen in baseball. It’s not unavoidable. Keeping the process the exact same is what works for me. You have to know yourself.”
Turley said he had discussed his struggles at the plate with assistant coach Darwin Barney.
“Darwin was asking what’s going on in my mind (at the plate),” Turley said. “Even on swings I might miss on, he’ll say, ‘Hey, that’s Gavin right there.’ The focus is executing my plan at the plate. I go up there with a plan and try to win pitch to pitch with that plan.
“It’s just going back to who I am and knowing I’m here for a reason and not trying to overthink things. There’s one goal in mind, and that’s to hit the ball. The further you get away from that (mentally), the worse things are going to go. It’s about keeping things simple.”
Bazzana said he was unconcerned about his teammate, who batted third in the order through most of the first 15 games and was in the No. 5 spot Sunday.
“Gav is a great player,” Bazzana said. “We have seen the best of him already this season. He is going to get right back to it. He is just finding himself, finding his way as a freshman. We have all been there. He is going to come out real strong.”
Canham said he liked Turley’s “approach and mentality” in center field on Sunday.
“I could hear him the whole dang game,” the fourth-year OSU coach said. “I told him, ‘I need to hear you all nine innings today.’ That is when I know he’s himself. That’s the stuff we saw in the fall and the early season. It’s encouraging. Happy to see it.”
The good news was the performance of the Oregon State pitching staff. Cal managed 15 hits and four runs in the series. On Sunday, starter AJ Lattery, Ian Lawson, Tyler Mejia and Ryan Brown all pitched between two and three innings and yielded the single run.
Beaver closer Ryan Brown has an 0.73 ERA in 10 appearances this season (courtesy OSU sports information)
In the series, pitching coach Rich Dorman used 10 men, and all were effective. Closer Ryan Brown threw 3 1/3 innings of hitless ball, gaining the save on Friday and the win on Sunday. The sophomore right-hander from South Salem, all-conference last season, is 2-0 with an 0.73 ERA and four saves in 10 appearances this season.
“When Brown comes in, everyone is pretty excited,” Canham said. “They know he is going to go out there and give his best stuff. A two-inning piece from him fires people up, especially the emotion he has toward our guys.”
Canham also made mention of freshman Tyler Mejia a 6-3, 190-pound southpaw from Castle Rock, Colo, who pitched two scoreless innings Sunday. Mejia has an 0.72 ERA in 8 1/3 innings and five appearances.
“Tyler is not pitching like a freshman,” the OSU skipper said. “He is pitching very confidently, down in the zone, mixing in his breaking ball. He has a little bit of mean to him when he’s on the mound.”
Canham did not use Oregon State’s No. 3 starter, junior right-hander Jaren Hunter, because of tightness in his arm.
“We’re giving him a little bit of time to make sure we’re not putting him in a bad spot,” Canham said. “He’ll get back in there.”
Oregon State’s collective ERA is 3.37, with 237 strikeouts in 211 innings.
“It’s special the way they are throwing it right now,” Bazzana said. “Can’t give enough credit to all the guys. We probably had eight guys throw it very well this weekend. We tell those guys we’re going to come out and score runs. They believe in us; it’s a matter of putting it together on hitting and defense, and we’re going to win a lot of games.”
Hitting remains a big “if” as the Beavers head to Seattle for four games this week — one non-conference affair with Seattle U. on Wednesday and a three-game series at Washington beginning Friday. The Beavers had 14 runners left on base in Sunday’s win. Four times they left the bases loaded without scoring a run.
Canham mentioned what separates great players is “they get the job done when they’re up with runners in scoring position.” Much improvement necessary there.
But Canham said he saw something in his hitters through the weekend that gives him optimism.
“A lot of guys were showing the intent to square balls up and do damage with line drives as opposed to trying to do too much,” he said. “We got a series win, which changes where guys can be at mentally and puts them in a really good spot.
“A walk-off win provides a ton of energy. We’ll try to keep the momentum going, learn from how this feels like, and how bad you want it to happen.”
Turley called Sunday’s win “a turning point.” In Oregon State’s six conference losses, the margin of defeat has been one run three times, two runs once and three runs twice.
“All the games we’ve come up close, it’s been a few pitches here and there,” Turley said. “I think everyone is coming together now. I’m excited to see what the future holds.”
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