It’s Dax to the max and Hutch in the clutch as Beavers sink Irvine
Freshman ace Dax Whitney has been a fortress in the starting rotation for the Beavers (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)
CORVALLIS — After a 12-0 waxing by Cal Irvine in Friday’s opener of an important three-game series — a game in which Oregon State used seven pitchers — the Beavers needed some stability on the mound in Saturday’s middle game.
They got it and how from two pitchers who likely will have a major say in how far the Beavers go in the postseason.
Freshman extraordinaire Dax Whitney held Cal Irvine at bay and veteran AJ Hutcheson came on for the performance of his career as Oregon State notched a 4-2 bounce-back victory before a packed house of 4,066 at Goss Stadium.
Whitney and Hutcheson combined to hold the 12th-ranked Anteaters (23-6) to four hits and one earned run and got home run help from Gavin Turley, Jacob Krieg and AJ Singer as the 11th-ranked Beavers (21-7) ended the visitors’ 12-game win streak.
The 6-5, 205-pound Whitney struggled some through his 4 2/3 innings but still limited Irvine’s big-bat lineup to three hits and one run, with three walks and seven strikeouts. The pressure of the Beavers’ most important game of the season so far didn’t faze the unflappable right-hander from Blackfoot, Idaho.
“Dax has the confidence of a guy who has been here for four years,” said Singer, OSU’s junior second baseman whose eighth-inning homer gave the Beavers their final run. “He has the mentality like this is his last year (in college).”
“He gave us a chance to win against a really good offense,” OSU pitching coach Rich Dorman said of Whitney. “He had his freshman moments, but he had a good fastball and mixed in some good curveballs, especially when he needed to. They got a couple of infield knocks on him, one off his glove, but he stayed with it and kept making pitches.”
With Oregon State ahead 2-1 and two outs and two runners on in the fifth, Hutcheson came on in relief of Whitney, who had thrown 96 pitches. Hutcheson induced James Castagnola to fly out to center to end the inning. After that it was lights out, Hutcheson yielding one hit and no earned runs with no walks and six strikeouts in 4 1/3 masterful innings. He picked up his first win of the season in the longest outing of his career.
“That was fun to watch,” Dorman said. “Hutch was in a really good rhythm. When that happens, you just let the guy cook. He changed speeds with the heater, kept them off balance, developed the changeup, and then had his slider.
“Normally we go heavy slider with AJ, but the fastball has gotten so much better. From down under, it is about 90 (mph), which is really tough to hit.”
Hutcheson is a 5-11, 185-pound junior right-hander from Elk Grove, Calif., who throws with the sidewinding style. He has been a fixture out of the bullpen his first two seasons, going 5-2 in 48 relief appearances, mostly in middle relief, but inconsistency has kept his ERA over 5.00 both seasons. This season he has been much more effective with a 1.93 ERA in 11 appearances, with only 10 hits and four walks allowed with 20 strikeouts and a .156 opponents’ batting average through 18 2/3 innings.
Never has Hutcheson been better than he was on Friday, throwing his sinking fastball 90 percent of the time.
“It was getting (off-balance) swings from lefties and jamming righties,” he said. “It was really good.”
Whitney would liked to have finished the fifth, but was glad to turn it over to Hutcheson.
“He is so electric,” Whitney said. “Every time that dude comes out of the pen, you know good stuff is going to happen.”
Friday’s defeat — Oregon State’s third in the last 42 home games and its worst loss at Goss in 11 years — had Hutcheson seeing red.
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“I came out really mad,” he said. “That was embarrassing. Woke up this morning and wanted to get after it. Today I just let it out.”
Head coach Mitch Canham couldn’t have been more impressed with Hutcheson’s performance.
“That is the best energy, consistency, attitude and want of going out and pitching I have seen from him,” Canham said. “We have seen glimpses of it coming, little by little, but he put it together today.”
Hutcheson threw only 52 pitches in his 4 1/3 innings, 39 of them for strikes. Canham might have brought in a closer in the ninth, but Hutcheson wasn’t having it.
“If you had tried to take the ball from him?” Canham said. “He is one of the nicest guys in the world, but …”
Junior sidewinder AJ Hutcheson exults in his pitching performance has he picks up the win in Oregon State’s 4-2 victory over Cal Irvine Saturday (courtesy OSU athletics)
“He said, ‘You good?’ ” Hutcheson said with a grin. “And I said, ‘Yeah. We’re going with me.’ ”
Whitney made his Oregon State debut on Feb. 15 at Surprise, Ariz., shutting down UNLV on five hits for five scoreless innings. He then had a couple of rough starts against Oklahoma and Auburn but has been really good over his last five outings, allowing only five earned runs in 24 2/3 combined innings. On March 8 against San Diego, he pitched six innings of five-hit, no-run ball with one walk and 10 strikeouts. The following week, Whitney no-hit Santa Clara for five innings with three walks and five K’s. On March 29, he struck out a season-high 11 batters in five innings against Nebraska.
Whitney’s four-seam fastball tops out at 96 to 98 mph, which he augments with a curve, slider and changeup. For the season, he is 3-2 with a 3.19 ERA in eight starts, yielding 29 hits with 15 walks and 57 strikeouts and a .210 opponents’ batting average in 36 2/3 innings.
“The season has gone pretty good,” Whitney said. “I had a little span there against San Diego where I was really feeling good. These last couple of starts I have been feeling well but have been having to work really hard every inning. I am hoping I can get to the point where I can command my fastball, dominate and keep my pitch count down.”
D1 Baseball recently named Whitney as its “Midseason Top Freshman” in the country.
“I saw that on my Instagram feed,” he said. “I thought, ‘That’s pretty cool.’ ”
The high-velocity fastball pays dividends. On Saturday, Whitney got a third strike on an off-speed pitch in at least three of his seven strikeouts.
“The off-speed felt great today,” he said. “The slider not as much, but the changeup/curveball felt really good.”
“On a big-time leverage count, he will go to that curveball,” Dorman said. “Because he has that heater, that is tough on the opposition.”
Whitney, who turned 19 in January, gambled on his future coming to Oregon State. He turned down slot bonus money in the July MLB draft that has been estimated at between $2 million and $3.5 million. The Beaver culture and the coaching he has gotten has made it worth it, he said.
“(Dorman) loves our pitching staff more than anybody,” Whitney said. “He is willing to do whatever we need. It is super cool to have him as our coach.
“My coaches in high school were really good. They gave it their all. They helped me a lot. But it is a great situation here for me. Being surrounded by the players, the talent around me has made me so much better. Being able to pick each other’s brains and find out different things has been huge for me.”
Dorman loves Whitney’s maturity and competitive nature.
“You could never tell he is a freshman,” the OSU pitching coach said. “And Dax is a great competitor. He wants it more than anybody.”
Whitney is scheduled to play this summer in the Cape Cod League, but said he will probably wind up pitching enough innings for the Beavers the he won’t play summer ball. He does hope to catch on with the USA Baseball All-Freshman Team that will play for a week this summer.
For now, Whitney will focus on helping Oregon State reach its goal: Omaha.
“And not just getting there, either,” he told me with a smile.
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