Oregon State Baseball: Beavers Take G2 vs UCLA 6-4

LOS ANGELES – Travis Bazzana, Micah McDowell and Kyle Dernedde all homered to send Oregon State to a 6-4 win over UCLA Saturday night at Jackie Robinson Stadium. With the win, the Beavers evened the series and look to take the finale with Sunday’s noon rubber match.

Bazzana hit a three-run home run in the fourth to put the Beavers up 4-2. McDowell went deep in the fifth, his solo shot putting Oregon State (35-15 overall, 17-12 Pac-12 Conference) up one after UCLA (26-20-1, 11-13-1) had tied the game in the fourth. Dernedde followed McDowell’s fifth home run of the year with his third of the season in the sixth, extending the Beavers’ lead to two.

That led to a masterful relief outing by Ben Ferrer, who came on in relief in the fifth and worked four scoreless innings, scattering four hits with a walk and six strikeouts. He picked up the win, improving to 1-1 on the year.

Ryan Brown picked up the final three outs of the game, in the ninth, for his ninth save of the season.

Jacob Kmatz started for the Beavers but did not figure in the decision. He exited after the fourth inning, having given up six hits and four runs with four strikeouts.

Kmatz’s counterpart, Kelly Austin, worked six full, allowing eight hits and six runs with 13 strikeouts. He took the loss to fall to 4-4 on the year.

Dernedde led the Beavers with three of the team’s eight hits for his sixth multiple-hit effort of the season. Bazzana and McDowell also had two hits for the Beavers in the win.

Next Up

Oregon State and UCLA conclude their three-game series Sunday at 12:05 p.m. PT. The game will air on Pac-12 Los Angeles in addition to Pac-12.com and the Pac-12 Now app.

Oregon State Notes

- Bazzana led off the game with his team-leading 17th double of the season. He’s now four shy of Michael Gretler (2018) for 10th-most in a season at OSU.

- Garret Forrester drew his 46th walk of the season in the first. The base on balls was the 143rd of his career, 13 shy of all-time leader Adley Rutschman (2017-19).

- With the walk, Forrester extended his reached base streak to 49 games.

- McDowell’s fifth inning home run was his first since April 24 at Grand Canyon. It was McDowell’s fifth home run of the season.

- McDowell extended his hit streak to seven games. That’s one shy of his season long.

- Dernedde’s home run was his third of the year and first since Feb. 24 against Coppin State.

- The Beavers hit three or more home runs for the eighth time this season.

- Oregon State improved to 21-7 this season when scoring first, including an 11-6 mark away from home.

- The Beavers have hit 62 home runs as a team this season, the most under Mitch Canham and second-most in a single-season at Oregon State. The 2023 Beavers trail only the 2018 club, which hit 67 home runs in 68 games.

- Ferrer has not allowed a run over his last three outings. During that stretch, he’s pitched in nine innings, allowing four hits with a walk. He’s struck out 14 in those nine innings of work.