Report by LBSU

Long Beach State trailed by two runs, and had two runners in scoring position with two outs in the fifth before the rain started falling. One hour later, the game’s complexion had completely changed and was almost entirely in Oregon State’s favor the rest of the way in a 16-4 loss.

Oregon State struck first, scoring twice in the opening frame. Michael Miller singled up the middle to begin the inning, and the Beavers proceeded to load the bases. A sacrifice fly from Danny Hayes brought home one run, and then a single from Parker Berberet gave the Beavers a 2-0 lead.

Long Beach State pulled back a run in the second inning with a two-out rally. Tre Dennis singled, and then with a heads up play, advanced to second while starter Greg Peavey’s back was turned, and then on an overthrow from Peavy at second Dennis moved to third. Rattled, Peavey walked the next two batters and then Brennan Metzger beat out an infield hit to score Dennis and make the score 2-1.

Oregon State added another run in the bottom of the fourth, and then Long Beach State mounted another threat in the fifth. Jordan Casas singled to start the action, and then Joey Terdoslavich walked to put two runners on. After being advanced by Steve Tinoco, the game was halted in the middle of TJ Mittelstaedt’s at-bat as part of an approximately hour-long rain delay.

The Dirtbags’ fortunes completely changed at that juncture as the teams resumed play. Matt Boyd was the new pitcher for the Beavers, and struck out Mittelstaedt on four pitches to end the threat.

With starter Andrew Gagnon out of the game following the rain delay, Troy Watson took over on the mount for Long Beach State, and struggled from the start, giving up back to back singles to start the bottom of the sixth. After one out, the Beavers followed with two more hits and would eventually score nine runs on eight hits, putting the game out of reach.

Tre Dennis hit a solo home run in the sixth inning, his first home run of the season, and Steve Tinoco hit a two-RBI single to score Brennan Metzger and Casas, but the Dirtbags had too much work to do to get back into the game after the sixth.  

Stefen Romero added two more Oregon State runs with a homer in the seventh, and the Beavers picked up an additional pair in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Due to continuing rains in the area, the two teams will play a double-header beginning at 1 p.m. tomorrow in an effort to complete the series.