6/12/2022 baseball Edit

Oregon State Falls To Auburn In G1 Of The Corvallis Super Regional

Brenden Slaughter • BeaversEdge

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For the Oregon State baseball team to earn the program's eighth trip to Omaha in school history, they'll have to beat the Auburn Tigers twice.

The Beavers (47-17) dropped the first game of the Corvallis Super Regional to the Auburn Tigers (41-19) 7-5 on Saturday night.

Auburn's best hitter got things started at Goss Stadium on Friday night as Sonny DiChiara hit a two-run homer in the top of the first to give the Tigers a 2-0 advantage.

Garret Forrester got the Beavers going in the bottom of the first as he blasted a 2-1 pitch over the fence in left-center, giving OSU a 3-2 advantage.

Justin Boyd was hit by a pitch to open the Beavers' bottom half before Wade Meckler walked. Kyle Dernedde wrapped up the scoring in the first as he drew a bases-loaded walk to extend the advantage to 4-2.

The Tigers then added two in the top of the second to tie the contest at four.

Jake Pfennigs got the start for the Beavers on the bump but didn't have his best stuff as he worked 2.2, allowing five runs and four walks while only striking out two.

Auburn reclaimed the lead in the top of the third with a sacrifice fly and chased Pfennigs in the process. Brock Townsend came on in relief in the top of the fourth inning.

The Tigers extended their advantage to 6-4 in the top of the fifth inning with a solo home run.

Townsend worked 2.1, allowing two hits and one run before giving way to Mitchell Verburg in the sixth. Verburg went 2.0, allowing two hits and a walk before DJ Carpenter entered in the eighth.

Auburn added its final run of the evening in the top of the eighth as an OSU error allowed an unearned run to score to push the lead to 7-4.

The Beavers attempted to rally in the bottom of the ninth, as Jacob Melton hit an RBI double off the left-field wall to score Justin Boyd who singled to open the frame. That cut the Tiger lead to 7-5, but the rally fell short.

Game two of the series is set for Sunday at 7 p.m. on ESPN2, stay tuned to BeaversEdge.com for continuing coverage...

Oregon State Notes

- Melton set the OSU single-season record with 169 total bases. He doubled home a run in the ninth that pushed him past Trevor Larnach (2018). The RBI was the 82nd of the year for Melton, who now trails single-season leader Adley Rutschman (2018) by just one.

- The hit was also the 91st of the year for Melton, equaling Steven Kwan (2018) and Wade Meckler (2022) for third-most at Oregon State.

- Oregon State scored its four first-inning runs on 51 pitches. The Beavers tallied a home run, two doubles, and three walks. OSU chased Auburn starter Trace Bright after 47 pitches and nine batters faced.

- The Beavers have now scored 76 first-inning runs this season, while opponents have scored 30.

- The 4,112 in attendance marked the third-largest crowd in Goss Stadium history. It trails just two attendance figures from this season, 4,128 versus UCLA (May 20) and 4,275 versus UCLA (May 21).

- Oregon State’s pitching staff set the program’s single-season record for strikeouts for a second consecutive year. The Beavers have 614, eclipsing the 2021 team’s 611.

- Forrester’s home run gave him 60 runs batted in on the year. That’s just one shy of tying Mike Lissman (2007) and Dylan Davis (2013) for ninth-most in a single season at OSU.

- Boyd extended his hit streak to 11 games with a ninth-inning single. He has 23 hits during the streak.