Beavers stumble to win over Aggies, ‘Must be better’ against San Diego
Oregon State right-fielder Justin Boyd (center) is greeted by teammates Garret Forrester (left) and Travis Bazzana after walking in the winning run in the Beavers’ 5-4 triumph over New Mexico State Friday night at Goss Stadium (Scobel Wiggins/OSU athletics)
Updated 6/5/2022 3:03 PM
CORVALLIS — Sports can offer a reality check that comes in the form of a punch to the solar plexus or a swat on the tush.
Oregon State hopes it’s the latter after advancing to Saturday’s championship round of the Corvallis Regional with a 5-4 victory in 10 innings over unheralded but game New Mexico State Friday night at Goss Stadium.
The Beavers (45-15) are the third national seed and the No. 1 seed in the Regional. New Mexico State (24-33) is the No. 4 seed and reached the NCAA Tournament only by virtue of going 4-0 and winning the Western Athletic Conference Tournament last weekend.
On Friday, though, the Aggies took OSU to the limit, and then some, before falling as a sellout crowd of 3,988 watched anxiously. Oregon State now faces No. 3 seed San Diego — which beat No. 2 seed Vanderbilt 3-2 in Friday’s other game — at 7 p.m. Saturday.
Friday’s affair was not a virtuoso performance by the hosts, who made two errors and a few base-running blunders, and their pitchers helped keep the visitors in the game by issuing seven free passes.
“I’m proud our guys came out on top, but you have to take a firm look in the mirror,” OSU coach Mitch Canham said. “We did not play well at all. It was good to get the ‘W,’ but we had a lot of jitters out there. Good to get them out of the way.”
“We didn’t play up to how Beaver baseball usually plays, but I’m glad we were able to sneak out a win,” said sophomore first baseman Garret Forrester, who lined three sharp singles in five at-bats. “We’re going to come out tomorrow, learn from what we did tonight and bounce back and play Beaver baseball how we know it.”
Oregon State, which outhit New Mexico State 10-4, held leads of 1-0, 2-1 and 4-3. But the Aggies kept battling back, scoring a run in the top of the ninth to send the issue into extra innings.
OSU closer Ryan Brown, atoning for a poor performance in his last outing in the Pac-12 Tournament, danced around a throwing error by shortstop Kyle Dernedde with one out in the 10th. Brown struck out Aggie slugger Logan Gallina to end the frame with a runner on second base.
Then the Beavers scratched out the winning run that came in more the “Beaver way.”
After Gavin Logan flew out to left field to open the bottom of the 10th, Travis Bazzana walked, then stole second base. After New Mexico State reliever Alex Bustamante intentionally walked Jake Dukart, Matthew Gretler flew out to center.
With two out, pinch-hitter Jacob Trosky walked on four pitches to load the bases. Justin Boyd followed with another four-pitch walk for a walkoff-by-walk victory.
Rather than save his No. 1 pitcher for Saturday’s game, Canham used ace Cooper Hjerpe against the Aggies. Good thing. Through six innings, the junior left-hander was invincible, allowing only one hit with one walk and eight strikeouts. Still, Oregon State led only 2-1.
Hjerpe faltered in the seventh, walking the lead-off hitter and then hitting two batters to load the bases with one out. Tommy Tabak, the No. 7 hitter in New Mexico State’s lineup, delivered a two-run single to left-center to push the Aggies ahead 3-2. Soon, Hjerpe’s night was over.
“I felt pretty good,” said Hjerpe, who allowed only two hits — both to Tabak — and finished with 10 strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. “I was getting a little tired at the end, had a little bit of jitters.
“The slider wasn’t there as much as it usually is. The thing about being a good pitcher is using your other stuff. I thought I did a good job of using the cutter. But I was also hitting guys, walking guys. I need to clean that stuff up and work on it for next week.”
Plenty must be accomplished before there is a next week for the Beavers. For now, they’re just glad they got past the guys in the other dugout Friday night.
“(The Aggies) played really well,” Canham said. “We saw what they did in the conference tournament. They were playing hot. They played loose, they played aggressive, and their pitchers did a great job today. Both of them (Bustamante and starter Ian Meija) threw the heck out of it, showed a lot of grit.”
Meija threw a career-high 124 pitches and wriggled out jams as the Beavers left three runners in scoring position in the first two innings.
“My No. 1 goal was to give my team a chance to win today,” said Meija, a 6-3 sophomore right-hander. “And I feel like I did that.”
“Really proud of my team,” New Mexico State coach Mike Kirby said. “We competed well. It was a great game all around. Ian threw the ball extremely well, but we were facing if not the top pitcher in the country, he’s close.”
Hjerpe should hire Tabak as his publicity director.
“We know he is easily the best pitcher in the country,” said the loquacious Tabak, a senior centerfielder. “When you go toe to toe with a guy like, it’s impressive. He doesn’t walk anybody and he doesn’t give up many hits. He’s amazing every time he steps on the mound.
“I had nothing to lose. My approach against him was to swing early. He got everybody to strike out today — except me. That was sweet. An unbelievable pitcher. Everybody knows that guy is nuts.”
The Aggies embraced their role as the tournament underdog.
“We were playing with house money,” Kirby said during the post-game press conference. “We probably had the worst record in the country.”
“I think there was one other team with a worse record,” Meija said, smiling,
“We’re a four seed and we came in with nothing to lose,” Tabak said. “We have a great team, and we showed it. We made it clear to the entire country we can play baseball.”
Mejia got a loud ovation from the Goss crowd as he left the game in the seventh. He tipped his cap as he walked to the dugout.
“That was awesome,” he said. “Oregon State fans go to toe with Texas A&M fans.”
I didn’t have a chance to ask Mejia what he meant by that. The Aggies were swept in a three-game series at College Station last season, but drew fewer than 2,000 per game.
The Aggies were well aware of Oregon State’s national reputation and the advantage the Beavers have at Goss.
“This environment is so different than what we are used to (in Las Cruces),” Tabak said. “We get maybe 200 people (for home games). Here we had 4,000 fans, but 4,000 fans who make a lot of noise. It’s a big difference. It’s a College World Series-like feeling. What a great atmosphere. It was electric.
“(The Beavers) have won plenty of College World Series. They’ve had a lot of great teams. But tonight, they were pressing out there. It’s pretty cool for us to do that to them. We came out on the wrong end, but to go extras with them? It doesn’t get much better.”
Added Kirby: “It was fun for us to get to check this place out. It’s pretty cool.”
The Beaver players are caught up, too, in the thrill of playing in the postseason on their home field..
Hjerpe: “It’s surreal to be a part of this. It’s something we’ve dreamed of as players our whole life.”
Forrester: “Waking up this morning and knowing we were going to play a Regional at Goss is like a dream come true for me. I had good vibes all day.”
The Beavers have little time to turn their attention to San Diego (37-18), a West Coast Conference team that jumped in front of the SEC’s Vanderbilt 3-0 and held on. The Toreros used ace left-hander Brycen Mautz (10-2) against the Commodores and will likely start senior right-hander Garrett Rennie (2-4, 3.86) against Oregon State. The Beavers will counter with junior right-hander Jake Pfennigs (3-0, 2.54).
Canham said he watched part of the Toreros’ victory.
“They came out with good energy,” he said. “They have good bounce around the yard. They put a lot of pressure on their opponent. They play loose. That’s something any team in the postseason needs to have. It was a thrilling game to watch. Vanderbilt is an excellent team. For San Diego to beat them, that says something about (the Toreros).”
If there was a positive sign for Oregon State Friday, is was the flawless work of Brown, who had given up seven ninth-inning runs in the 25-22 loss to UCLA at Scottsdale last week. The sophomore right-hander went 1 2/3 innings of hitless ball with three strikeouts.
If there was an ominous sign, it was the play of Jacob Melton, the Pac-12 MVP who looked gimpy at times in the conference tournament and showed a bit of that Friday. The junior centerfielder had only an infield single in five trips Friday night, striking out twice and flailing at pitches out of the zone. Perhaps it was just a bad day. Or maybe he is trying to play through an injury.
The Beavers need Melton if they’re going to advance past this Regional. And they need to be better as a group than they were against New Mexico State.
“Our expectations are always to come home and put another (College World Series) trophy in that room over there,” said Canham, gesturing toward an adjacent room that holds memorabilia. “Our guys talk about it, write it down, work their butts off every day to get there. They’re visualizing coming home, driving onto the field and doing a (championship) parade.
“That doesn’t happen unless you’re present on a given day. If you make a mistake — and we made a handful today — you have to shut it down and make adjustments and be better the next day.”
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