Oregon State Baseball: 5 takeaways from opening weekend

With the Oregon State baseball team (2-2) earning a split in their four-game stint in Surprise to open the season, BeaversEdge.com Managing Editor Brenden Slaughter gives five important takeaways.

1. Jake Dukart looks the part

One of the bright spots of the Beavers' opening weekend of play was the emergence of sophomore Jake Dukart. After batting just.210 as a freshman in 2019, Dukart is sporting a .600 average in three games played in 2020. While the sample size is small, Dukart is a vastly improved player this season and I expect him to be a consistent hitter for the Beavs this season. In 10 AB, he's tallied six hits, three walks, and has a .692 OB%, indicating he's seeing the ball well early on. Again, it's an extremely small sample size, but talent isn't an issue for Dukart and this very well could be the start of his coming-out party as a big-time playmaker. If he's able to continue his hot pace against the likes of Mississippi State this weekend, there will be no question that he's arrived in his sophomore season.

2. That was an outlier for Jake Mullholland

One of the not so bright spots of opening weekend was that newly-named starting pitcher Jake Mullholland was far from his usual self. He allowed seven earned runs in his season debut against Gonzaga on Saturday and couldn't settle into a consistent groove. He only worked 3 2/3 innings, but it was clear that something wasn't quite right as he also allowed seven hits and two walks against just one strikeout. Given what we know and what we've seen Mullholland do as the Beavers' top reliever/closer over the past three years, I'm willing to place a lot of stock into the notion that this was simply an outlier of a performance. He's too good of a pitcher and has too good of stuff to have another game like that this season...He'll get another shot against a very good team in Mississippi State, so we'll find out quickly if he's able to bounce back and be the Mully that OSU has come to expect.