Oregon State Baseball: Beavers Clinch Series vs Oregon

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Jacob Melton went 4-for-5 with his 11th home run of the season to pace No. 2 Oregon State to an 8-7 win over No. 24 Oregon in front of Goss Stadium record-crowd of 4,026 Saturday night.

Ryan Brown gave up a two-run home run in the ninth but proceeded to get the game’s final three outs, including two by strikeouts, to send the Beavers (37-9 overall, 17-6 Pac-12 Conference) to the one-run win. With the victory, OSU stands three games ahead of UCLA and Arizona in the race for the Pac-12’s regular-season crown.

Melton drove in five, starting off with a two-run double in the second. Wade Meckler put the Beavers on the board with a run-scoring single before Melton pushed the Beavers ahead with his 17th two-base hit of the year.

In the fourth, he lofted a 2-0 pitch from Oregon (28-18, 13-10) reliever Dylan Sabia over the fence in left to put the Beavers up 6-3.

Oregon scored two in the fifth before OSU answered with a run in the fifth. Meckler lined a pitch to right, which was caught, but Kyle Dernedde scored from second for a sacrifice fly.

The Beavers scored their final run of the game on a wild pitch in the seventh, which proved to be valuable with Brennan Milone’s ninth-inning home run trimming OSU’s lead to one.

Dernedde and Meckler both had two hits for OSU, which finished with 12 on the night.

Neither starter worked long. Jacob Kmatz pitched three full for the Beavers, allowing five hits and three runs with four strikeouts. He did not figure in the decision.

The loss went to Oregon starter Isaac Ayon, who gave up five hits and five runs in 3 1/3 innings. He dropped to 3-2 on the year.

DJ Carpenter picked up the win, his second of the year, after allowing four hits and two runs in two innings. Brown earned the save, his ninth of the year.

Next Up

The teams conclude the three-game series Sunday at 2:05 p.m. PT. The game will air live on the Pac-12 Networks.

Oregon State Notes

- The previous Goss Stadium attendance mark was 4,025 versus Minnesota on June 9, 2018. The previous mark for a regular-season game was 4,018 on May 25, 2019.

- Melton posted his 18th multiple-hit game of the season.

- Melton’s home run in the fourth was his first round-tripper since April 23 versus Washington.

- The fourth-inning blast was just the third in the frame by a Beaver this season. Matthew Gretler (May 29 at Nevada) and Justin Boyd (April 26 at Oregon) did so prior to Saturday.

- Melton also now has 16 multiple-RBI efforts.

- Dernedde picked up his sixth multi-hit game of the season.

- Meckler joined Justin Boyd as Beavers with 20 multi-hit games.

- Oregon State finished with double-digit hits for the 12th time in 22 Pac-12 games this season.

- The victory gave the Beavers their ninth series win over Oregon since the Ducks re-instated their program starting with the 2009 season. The teams have played 13 conference series since 2009.

- The Beavers improved to 12-4 when an opponent scores first, including an 8-3 mark at home.

- Oregon State honored former head coach Pat Casey in a 15-minute pre-game ceremony.

OSU Athletics

Updated Pac-12 Standings

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