Oregon State Baseball Notebook: No.12 Beavers remain in Pac-12 title race

Following a rain-shortened series that saw the Oregon State baseball team split a two-game set with Stanford, the Beavers now turn their attention to their final regular season opponent, the USC Trojans. With Pac-12 and national seeding implications on the line this weekend, OSU will be looking to wrap up conference play on a high note against the Trojans to bolster their resume to the NCAA selection committee.

With an important matchup with USC on deck, and the postseason on the horizon, BeaversEdge.com gives you the latest with the Beavers.

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While a dose of rain in the Bay area allowed for just two games between Oregon State and Stanford, the Beavers were still able to split the shortened series to remain tied with the Cardinal for second place in the conference.

In Friday's 8-5 loss, Joe Casey went 3-for-4 with a triple and Alex McGarry hit his eighth home run of the season but it wasn't enough as the the loss snapped a 13-game win streak for Oregon State at Sunken Diamond, dating back to the 2009 season.

Bryce Fehmel started for the Beavers and allowed 10 hits and seven runs in 4 2/3 innings. However, he took the loss and dropped to 7-2 this season.

With Saturday's game cancelled, the Beavers turned their full attention and focus to tying up the series on Sunday and thanks to timely hitting, they were able to do just that.

Zak Taylor hit his first home run of the season and the Oregon State offense finished with 13 hits in a 5-2 win over Stanford Sunday afternoon at Sunken Diamond.

Taylor hit a hanging breaking ball from Stanford starter Erik Miller over the left field fence in the fifth to send Oregon State to a 4-0 lead. It highlighted an offense that helped push the Beavers to a 35-16-1 overall record and 20-6 mark in Pac-12 Conference play.

With the win, the Beavers have now won at least 20 games in Pac-12 play for the third consecutive seasons.

Grant Gambrell started for the Beavers, and was solid through five, holding the Cardinal to five hits and a walk with four strikeouts. He threw 64 pitches before giving way to Dylan Pearce in the sixth. Gambrell earned the win to improve to 5-1 on the year.

Jake Mulholland came on in the ninth with a runner on first and finished the game for his eighth save of the season and 30th of his career.

With just one week remaining in the Pac-12 regular season, there's still a lot to be decided in the conference title race. With Oregon State and Stanford splitting its two-game series to both hold steady at 20-6 and UCLA sweeping Washington to remain at 22-5, the games this weekend will determine the winner or winners of the Pac-12 conference.

Here's what the top three teams face in the final weekend of the season:

UCLA

- @ Oregon

Stanford

- @ Arizona State

Oregon State

- vs USC

There's still a lot of possibilities, but the important thing to remember is that the Bruins' magic number to clinch the conference outright is two. For instance, if the Beavers were to win out and UCLA dropped a single game to Oregon, the Beavers would still claim a share of the Pac-12 title with the Bruins as long as they finish with the same number of losses.

While the Beavers winning the Pac-12 title outright isn't out of the question yet, it would require a lot of help from the Ducks, and some from Stanford's opponent ASU, which isn't likely, but not impossible.

With a shot at the conference title and postseason seeding on the line for the Beavers this weekend, a sweep against USC would be exactly what the doctor ordered.

In the latest D1 Baseball Projected Field of 64, Oregon State is projected to be the No. 11 seed and would be paired with sixth seeded Louisville. While the Beavers are up one spot from their projection of the 12th overall seed last week, I believe there's still room for them to jump up a few more spots to the nine or 10 range.

Projections are always changing and are fluid right up until the final hour of the selection process, but it gives us a good barometer of what the national pundits are thinking of the Beavers right now.

Only one regular season series remains for Oregon State as the Beavers host USC at Goss Stadium for senior weekend. With the postseason on the horizon for the Beavers, they'll be looking to sweep USC to bolster their resume for the NCAA selection committee.

The Trojans (23-27-1, 10-14-1 Pac-12) have been a middling team for most of the season and given that at this point, they're only playing for pride, the Beavers should have the advantage at home with a lot more on the line.

Stay tuned for an in-depth preview on the OSU-USC matchup coming later this week...