Oregon State Baseball: Beavers claim finale vs Bulldogs 7-2

STARKVILLE, Miss. – Andy Armstrong set a career-high with four hits and the Beavers posted a four-run eighth inning in the finale of a three-game series over Mississippi State Sunday afternoon at Dudy Noble Field at Polk-DeMent Stadium.

Alex McGarry reached on an bases-loaded infield single to make it 3-2, which was followed by a Ryan Ober sacrifice fly to push the Beavers’ lead to 4-2. Troy Claunch punctuated the four-run frame with a double off the wall in right-center.

All four runs in the eighth were charged to Mississippi State reliever Jared Shemper, who took the loss and is now 0-1 on the year.

Cooper Hjerpe, on the strength of 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief, picked up the win to improve to 1-1 this season.

Armstrong singled in the second, fourth, sixth and eighth innings to surpass his previous best of three hits, tied earlier in the week, on Monday, against BYU. He now has two multi-hit efforts on the year.

Oregon State tallied 10 hits as a team and walked eight times, with Micah McDowell picking up three free bases. Richie Mascareñas had a two-hit day, singling in both the eighth and ninth. He drove in the Beavers’ final run of the game in the ninth.

The Beavers (3-4 overall) scratched to a 2-0 lead through 3 1/2 innings via a wild pitch in the second and double-play ball in the fourth that netted OSU its second run of the game. Mississippi State (5-1) got one run back in the bottom half of the fourth on a solo home run and a double in the sixth.

Neither team scored in the seventh, setting the stage for the Beavers’ four-run eighth inning.

Neither starting pitcher figured in the decision. Nathan Burns got the nod for the Beavers and struck out six in 5 2/3 innings of work. The junior scattered three hits and two runs while walking one.

His counterpart, Eric Cerantola, allowed three hits and two runs – one earned – in five innings. He struck out six as well but issued five walks.

Next Up

Oregon State returns to Corvallis for a few days before heading to California to take on San Diego State in a four-game series. The series opener is slated for 6 p.m. PT Thursday night at Tony Gwynn Stadium.

Follow The Series

All four games of the series will air on the Beaver Sports Network and TuneIn. Only game four of the series will have streaming video, via the Mountain West Network, with the link available on osubeavers.com.