Turley turns the tables on Tulane as Beavers advance
Gavin Turley looks up — and fans rise up — to watch the ball clear the fence on his fifth-inning grand slam homer, the biggest blow in Oregon State’s 10-4 win over Tulane Friday night in their opener of the Corvallis Regional (courtesy Karl Maasdam/OSU sports communications)
Updated 6/1/2024 11:08 AM
CORVALLIS — One big swing, one big turn of momentum.
Who knows what Gavin Turley’s fifth-inning grand slam home run means to the remainder of Oregon State’s season. For sure, it provided the energy surge that powered the Beavers past Tulane 10-4 in their Corvallis Regional opener Friday night.
The visiting Green Wave (35-25) were leading 3-2 in the fifth, and if the denizens of Beaver Nation weren’t getting nervous, they were at least beginning to wonder if and when the tide would turn.
Turley’s answer was definitive. With the bases juiced and nobody out, the sophomore designated hitter parked a Chandler Welch fastball on top of the bullpen past the left-field fence, and the record Goss Stadium crowd of 4,278 woke up with a roar.
“Welch) was running it in, so I knew what kind of swing to put on it,” Turley said of the biggest of his 33 career round-trippers.
Suddenly, Oregon State (43-14) was ahead 6-3 and in control.
“It took those early jitters out,” said OSU center fielder Micah McDowell, who went 4 for 5 to spur the Beavers’ 13-hit attack. “We knew if we just stayed with our approach and kept grinding out at-bats, eventually we were going to break it open. (Turley’s blast) was a huge relief. Big swing, huge moment.”
No. 1 seed Oregon State tacked on four more runs — one on Travis Bazzana’s eighth-inning solo homer, his 27th round-tripper of the season — and Nelson Keljo provided stellar relief pitching as the Beavers moved into Saturday’s 7 p.m. winners’ bracket against No. 2 seed Cal State Irvine.
Oregon State has belted a school-record 114 home runs with a .303 average this season, but there have been down times, most notably when the Beavers managed only four runs combined in games against Stanford and Arizona State in the Pac-12 Tournament.
“It’s a momentum offense,” Tulane coach Jay Uhlman said. “There are some ways that you can pitch to them, if you make good pitches. We tried to ram the ball in on Turley and he put it on top of the tin roof out there.
“You are in playoff baseball and you’re going to get challenges. We made a pitch, he made a swing. One swing, four runs. Momentum offense.”
It was Turley’s fifth grand slam of the season. I’m not sure that’s not an NCAA single-season record. I would be willing to bet it’s an Oregon State career record. Who else at OSU has hit five in even a four-year career?
“I have seemed to come up in some big moments this year,” said the 6-1, 185-pound Turley, who increased his Pac-12-leading RBI total to 73. “I feed off the energy of the crowd. What I do on a day-to-day basis is for them.
“Last night, Trent (Caraway, OSU’s third baseman) said, ‘Let’s go put on a show.’ That’s my job, to go put on a show. They paid money to be here, so I’m going to give them something that’s worth watching.”
Keljo was worth watching, too. Coming on in the sixth to relieve starter Aiden May and protect a 6-4 lead, the 6-4, 225-pound sophomore left-hander from Jesuit was dominant. Over the next 2 2/3 innings, Keljo allowed one hit and no runs with no walks and four strikeouts.
“That was a different beast than I have seen from him before,” OSU coach Mitch Canham said.
Actually, the beast came out last week in Scottsdale, when he stymied the Sun Devils on no hits, no runs with one walk and four K’s in four strong innings. On Friday at Goss, it was all about mixing pitches and changing speeds.
“I was throwing my slider hard for strikes and keeping the hitters off-balance,” Keljo said. “If I just throw my fastball, the hitters will know what’s coming. I had my slider and changeup working. That was the biggest thing tonight.”
Said Uhlman: “Keljo settled in nicely. When you get a big lead like that and have a good arm, you can attack the zone freely.”
Bazzana’s long ball was for insurance. The Pac-12 Player of the Year finished 2 for 3 with three runs scored and a pair of intentional walks. Uhlman — who served nine years as George Horton’s right-hand man at Oregon — recalled once walking ex-OSU catcher Adley Rutschman with the bases loaded while he was with the Ducks.
“Not afraid to do that with Bazzana this time, either,” Uhlman said. “We have heard time and time again, don’t let that guy beat you. If the guys behind him (in the lineup) do the job, you tip your hat, but we were not going to let Travis beat us.”
Canham was buoyed by the offensive production — “our offense had a tremendous day” — and liked the response to an early deficit.
“When you hit the postseason, momentum is huge,” he said. “Energy is a real thing. Kudos to the guys that, when we gave up three runs in the second, they did not let it faze them. I didn’t see any panic from the guys.
When something bad happens, these guys do a really good job pushing it aside and picking each other up.”
May allowed only five hits and had nine strikeouts through 5 2/3 innings, but he also walked four after issuing only 18 free passes in 63 innings all season. It got him into trouble in the second, when he walked the first two batters, then was victim of a bunt single to load the bases with no outs. A throwing error by Bazzana at second base allowed the first run to score, and after a strikeout, a one-hopper to first base went off Mason Guerra’s glove for a two-run single and a 3-0 Tulane lead.
Guerra’s two-run double in the bottom half kept Oregon State close until Turley’s fifth-inning bomb turned the tide.
Caraway had two hits in his return to the lineup for the first time since March 16 after suffering a broken finger. He also made two low throws to first — one off a stinging drive down the line, the other on a routine play — that Guerra failed to come up with either time.
On another play, May lolligagged a throw on a one-hopper to the mound and got the out at first only after review. If the three errors and other misplays caused Canham much concern, the skipper wasn’t showing it.
“We have had our moments of playing really good defense,” Canham said. “We have had other moments of kicking the ball around here and there. I am not going to sit here and worry about those things. It doesn’t matter which part of the game, we will find a way to work on it. The majority of our work in practice is on defense.”
Jabin Trosky came in as a defensive replacement in the eighth and made a sterling play on a hard-hit ground ball to his left.
“Jabo came in and made a magician-type move up the middle and throw to first,” Canham said. “He is a tremendous defender and has done a phenomenal job all year of filling in at third base when TC got banged up.
“We’ll look at the right lineup moving forward. It will be about putting the right group on the field at any given moment.”
Oregon State is set up pretty well for the tournament, with junior right-hander Jacob Kmatz (6-2, 3.48) slated to go against Cal Irvine at 7 p.m. Saturday.
“Winning the first game is big,” Canham said.
The Beavers will have a fresh bullpen. Closer Bridger Holmes came on for nine pitches and the final two outs Friday night. “We were keeping Nellie to a lower pitch count (35),” Canham said, inferring that Keljo will be able to go again Sunday in the Beavers’ third game in the Regional. Why he used Holmes instead of another reliever with a six-run lead, Canham didn’t say.
Cal Irvine blew a 9-1 lead and needed two runs in the bottom of the ninth to pull out a 13-12 victory over No. 3 seed Nicholls on Friday. The Anteaters used No. 1 starter Nick Pinto for 4 2/3 innings and 102 pitches and also two of their better relievers, Ricky Ojeda and Rick Tibbett, for 52 and 49 pitches, respectively. The starter against Oregon State will likely be a freshman — either right-hander Trevor Hansen (6-3, 5.64) or left-hander Brandon Lou (5-1, 4.09).
Oregon State’s homefield advantage is real. The Beavers are 25-2 at Goss this season.
“Jay has been here a couple of times and he was telling us they’re a smart fan base,” Tulane second baseman Connor Rasmussen said. “They’re really into the game. We were able to take them out of the game for a little bit, but they started putting good at-bats together and the crowd got more and more into it. “You love playing in environments like this. This is why you come to Tulane — to play in a Regional and play in front of crowds like this.”
The winner of Saturday’s night’s game is in the driver’s seat to claim the Regional title. The loser will play an elimination game against the winner of Saturday’s Nicholls-Tulane game. The survivor there would advance to face the winner of Saturday night’s game on Sunday and would need to beat that team again on Monday to advance to next week’s Super Regional.
“I like where we’re sitting right now,” Canham said, “but we are really hungry for tomorrow.”
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