Postseason starts Wednesday for Beavers, who made the regular season a special one
Three players who form one of the best outfields in Oregon State baseball history — from left Justin Boyd, Wade Meckler and Jacob Melton — convene after Melton’s 15th home run of the season in a 9-3 win over UCLA Saturday at Goss Stadium (courtesy OSU sports information)
It’s on to the Pac-12 Tournament for Oregon State, which two weeks ago was the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
Are the Beavers going in with momentum or in a slump?
They will tell you it is the former after Saturday’s 9-3 victory over UCLA at Goss Stadium, allowing the Beavers (41-13 overall, 20-10 in Pac-12 play) to avoid a sweep by the Bruins in their final regular-season series.
Oregon State, which finished a game behind league champion Stanford (37-14, 21-9), goes into the first-ever Pac-12 Tournament as the second seed and faces No. 7 seed Washington (30-24, 14-16) in Wednesday’s 4:45 p.m. opener at Scottsdale, Ariz. The Beavers swept the Huskies in their regular-season series April 22-24 at Goss.
“I’m excited to go down to Arizona,” OSU right-fielder Justin Boyd said after Sunday’s win over UCLA. “It will be hot down there but it will be fun. We bounced back today and ended on a high note going into the tournament.”
Oregon State ended its first four-game losing streak of the season, which included the final two games of a three-game series at Arizona the previous weekend. With five games to go, the Beavers had a three-game lead over Stanford in the Pac-12 race. The Cardinal, who swept last-place Southern Cal in their final series ending Sunday, probably couldn’t believe their good fortune that the nation’s No. 1 team lost its final two series against Arizona and UCLA.
That’s part of the reason why Sunday’s win over UCLA was important for the Beavers.
“We view every game as a must-win game, but even more-so today, coming off those two series losses,” said OSU centerfielder Jacob Melton, whose only two hits of the UCLA series were home runs No. 14 and 15 of the season. “Picking up a Game-3 win and not getting swept at home is big, and so is righting the momentum from this game into the tournament. We came out today and played good baseball. We’re all happy with the result.”
The Beavers didn’t play smart and weren’t sharp at times during the four-game skid in what has been one of the best regular seasons in the 115-year history of the Oregon State program.
“We hadn’t gone through any adversity all season,” assistant coach Darwin Barney said. “This will be good for us. The guys will learn from it.”
“You drop a couple of games, you just have to clear your head,” head coach Mitch Canham said. “As we talked about with the guys, what does adversity do? It has an opportunity to bring us closer together. I thought it did that today.
“Maybe the guys put a little too much pressure on themselves. But learning from that and going out and responding is a good sign.”
Jake Pfennigs made a come-through performance on the mound in Sunday’s finale. The 6-7, 215-pound junior right-hander, who missed seven weeks in the middle of the season with an arm injury, allowed five hits and three runs in 6 1/3 strong innings, going a season-high 93 pitches. Pfennigs lasted only 2 1/3 innings in last Sunday’s 10-5 loss at Arizona.
“Tremendous job by Jake,” Canham said. “A great rebound from last week. He was ready to rock and roll today.”
“A very important win for us,” Pfennigs said. “We really wanted this one. Now we’re on the right track, and we’re going to carry it to Arizona and the rest of the season. We’re confident, we’re healthy, we’re ready. We’re feeling good.”
For the first 50 games of Oregon State’s season, outfielder Wade Meckler hit in the leadoff position. The last two games, Canham has used second baseman Travis Bazzana in the spot, moving Meckler back to third with Melton in the clean-up slot. Bazzana, who finished the regular season hitting .321 for the Beavers, was the MVP of the West Coast League last summer for the Corvallis Knights, hitting a league-record .429.
As the game began on Sunday, the freshman from Australia had what may have been the best at-bat of the season for the Beavers, ending a 10-pitch sequence with an infield single that helped them score a pair of runs in the first inning.
“That was a big tone-setter for us,” Boyd said. “A really good at-bat for Travis — staying competitive, battling through and getting on base. It gave us a spark right off the bat.”
Added Canham: “That’s part of being a leadoff guy. Travis is comfortable there. He has done it for most of his life. He and Wade both do a tremendous job there. We decided to shake it up a little bit. (Bazzana) is really good at getting on base. We love getting guys on base in front of Meckler.”
Boyd went 5 for 11 and first baseman Garret Forrester 6 for 12 in the series, but both scorched several balls that were caught at or near the outfield fence. Forrester whacked a three-run homer to right to key a five-run sixth, two innings after flying out to the wall.
“Garret flew out deep, went in and had a peanut butter-and-jelly sandwich, and then he hit the next one out,” Canham said with a smile. “He’s squaring up balls. He’s getting good pitches to hit and taking good passes at them.”
The Pac-12 didn’t need a post-season tournament. It doesn’t do the conference any good. The Pac-12 is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, baseball leagues in the country. Five teams — Stanford, OSU, UCLA, Oregon and Arizona — will make the NCAA Tournament even if they are ousted in two games in the double-elimination tourney. It gives Washington, California and Arizona State a chance to advance if they win the Pac-12 Tournament, which is unlikely.
But it creates a greater possibility of injuries going into the NCAA Tournament. And it burns innings of starters of the league’s better clubs. Canham said Saturday he isn’t sure how he’ll use his starters in Scottsdale. It’s possible OSU will go with No. 4 starter Jaren Hunter Wednesday against Washington, which would give Cooper Hjerpe, Jacob Kmatz and Pfennigs a full seven days of rest between starts. They may all get abbreviated starts, too, as teams are allowed to expand their rosters from 27 to 30 players. It’s likely the Beavers will add three pitchers, providing more cushion to one of the deepest pitching staffs in the country.
One thing Canham likes about the Pac-12 Tournament is the intense atmosphere it will provide.
“It’s an environment entirely different from a normal weekend series,” Canham says. “You have to win every stinking game. You start getting that elimination feel if you lose. This will be good experience for our guys, how they respond to it.”
The immediate goal for the Beavers is to finish as one of the top eight seeds in the NCAA Tournament, which guarantees home-field advantage through the Super Regionals. It’s unsure how not winning the Pac-12 regular-season tournament will affect OSU’s seeding, but winning it wouldn’t have hurt.
“You want to win the Pac-12 title,” Canham said. “It’s something you remember for the rest of your life. We didn’t get it, but we’re in the postseason now. This is where you have to go get hot.”
It has been a regular season to remember for the Beavers, with many individual highlights. Melton leads the Pac-12 in slugging percentage (.702), total bases (146) and RBIs (71), is tied for third in doubles (20), fourth in batting average (.361) and tied for fifth in home runs (15). Boyd leads the league in on-base percentage (.484) and stolen bases (22). Meckler leads the conference in runs scored (64), is tied for third in doubles (20) and seventh in batting average (.354).
Hjerpe leads the Pac-12 in victories (nine), strikeouts (135) and opponents batting average (.188) and is second in ERA (2.36). Ryan Brown is tied for the league lead in saves (nine).
This is Beaver Nation’s last look at several of the leaders on this year’s team. Melton, Boyd, Meckler and Hjerpe are draft-eligible along with junior catcher Gavin Logan and reliever Ben Ferrer. Senior relievers Mitchell Verburg and Reid Sebby will be gone, too.
Since the season started, this group has had one major goal in mind: To win Oregon State’s fourth College World Series title since 2006. I asked Boyd Sunday if he thinks it could happen.
“I definitely do,” he nodded. “We have all the pieces. We can do it.”
Beginning Wednesday, the second season begins.
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