The 3-2-1: Oregon State increases win streak to 23

The No. 1 Oregon State Baseball continued their incredible winning streak as they improved to 28-1 on the season with 23 consecutive victories. BeaversEdge.com breaks down the big weekend in OSU Baseball in this week's 3-2-1 segment.

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1. The Beavers always have extra in the tank.

The Beavers didn’t give the fans an easy game until Sunday, winning Friday and Saturday in walkoff fashion, including Saturday’s 16 inning thriller. Given how long Saturday’s game was, the Beavers could have come out tired, flat, and uninspired. Players like Cadyn Grenier and Nick Madrigal played every inning this weekend, and by the end of the day on Sunday, the Beavers mentioned they were definitely drained. But I have to hand it to the Beavers, they never showed it on the field, they made all the routine plays and played error-free baseball. For as long as this season goes, there is always a little extra left in the gas tank for this squad. They don’t know how to lose.

2. OSU’s pitching isn’t invincible.

Other than Jake Thompson’s one hit gem on Sunday, the other OSU starters struggled putting away a pesky Utah squad. Luke Heimlich started strong but faded late, and eventually it led to Utah getting back into the game. On Saturday, Bryce Fehmel was up and down but wasn’t able to fully close the door on the Utes either. While OSU did get the series sweep, it brought Beaver fans back to earth in terms of the pitching staff. It’s unrealistic to think that Heimlich and Co. are going to shut out opponents every week in the Pac-12. This might be the best OSU pitching staff in some time, maybe even ever given that they rank No. 1 in the country in ERA, but all pitchers have a bad game here and there, and this weekend both Heimlich and Fehmel allowed two runs across, which for them is quite unusual.

3. Cadyn Grenier is becoming the real deal.

Coming into this season, the scouting report for OSU’s hitters had Nick Madrigal and KJ Harrison written all over it. One person not circled heading into the season was Grenier. Last season, he struggled to adjust to the intense pitching of the Pac-12, and only hit .240 for the season. However, this season Grenier has come to play. He is hitting .316 for the season, and leads the Beavers in home runs with 4. Offensively, the Beavers are getting to the point where opponents can’t choose to pitch around players. The Beavers are making teams have to pick their poison when it comes to the Beaver lineup, and more times than not the Beavers are making them pay.

*** Discuss OSU Baseball with fellow Beaver fans ***

1. How will the Beavers handle the next two weeks?

Pat Casey mentioned today, that this week is a very rough scheduling quirk. The Beavers play Gonzaga at home on Tuesday before heading to UW to take on the soaring Huskies who just took ⅔ from UCLA in L.A. The Huskies currently sit 2nd in the Pac-12, and will offer the Beavers their toughest series of the season so far given that the Beavers will be away from the friendly confines of Goss Stadium.

2. Who will pitch against Gonzaga?

This question may seem irrelevant in some regards, but the Beavers used a ton of arms this weekend with the 16 inning game on Saturday. Pat Casey said after Sunday’s game that there will have to be guys who haven’t pitched much this season that need to step up against the Bulldogs. My best guess would be that Sam Tweedt will get the starting nod, but look for several youngsters to get the opportunity to come in and pitch to give the bullpen rest heading into the important series with UW.

The Beavers will lose one game this week.

As mentioned earlier, Casey mentioned that this is going to be a very difficult week for his team, and I don’t think the Beavers will be able to clean sweep UW. Not to mention that Gonzaga always plays the Beavers tough too. I think OSU will either lose the opener or the Saturday game to UW. However the Beavers will beat Gonzaga, and win the series against UW to give them a 3-1 record for the week and further extend their lead in the Pac-12.