Beavers Win Series Opener

Friday, March 16

Berkeley, CA

7:05 PM

Oregon State

16-1, 0

California

12-5, 0

Oregon State

California

Photo by: Dave Nishitani/Oregon State Athletics

March 16, 2018 | Baseball

Box Score Box Score

OSU won its seventh consecutive Pac-12 opener

By: Athletic Communications

BERKELEY, Calif. – A three-run fourth inning sent the top-ranked Oregon State baseball team to a 4-3 win over California Friday night at Evans Diamond to open Pac-12 Conference play for the Beavers and Golden Bears.

Already up 1-0 thanks to a run-scoring single by Steven Kwan in the second, the Beavers added to the total with the three runs on two hits and two California errors. Jack Anderson scored the first run of the frame on a Cal throwing error, then watched as Kwan drove in his second run of the game on a groundout.

Cadyn Grenier punctuated the inning with a squeeze, and reached first when no one covered the bag.

Those three runs turned out to be key as the Golden Bears (12-5 overall, 0-1 Pac-12) scored two in the fourth and one more in the eighth. Brandon Eisert and Jake Mulholland combined to get the game's final six outs for the one-run victory.

Luke Heimlich started for the Beavers (16-1, 1-0), and improved to 4-0 after holding Cal to two runs on eight hits in seven innings. His counterpart, Jared Horn, took the loss for the Golden Bears, allowing seven hits and four runs in six innings. He dropped to 3-1 on the year.

Mulholland, meanwhile, picked up his seventh save of the season. He struck out Darren Baker with the tying run at first after a leadoff single by Max Flower.

Grneier paced the Oregon State offense with two hits.

Next Up
Oregon State and California continue the three-game series Saturday with a 3:05 p.m. PT first pitch at Evans Diamond in Berkeley. Note, there will not be live video or TV during the series so make sure to follow the team via social media and on the Beaver Sports Network and TuneIn. For a direct link on TuneIn, visit listen.tunein.com/oregonstatebaseball.

In PDX
Saturday's game is slated to air on 103.7 FM in the Portland region.

Opening Pac-12 Play
The win Friday marked Oregon State's seventh straight to open Pac-12 Conference play, dating back to 2012. The team's last loss in a Pac-12 opener was 2011 at Arizona. The Beavers lost that game 18-0 but went on to win their next 11 games.

By One Run
The Beavers improved to 5-0 this season in games decided by one run. Since the 2017 season, the Beavers are 19-1 in one-run games.

Big Play To End The Sixth
Trevor Larnach made a big defensive play for a second consecutive game. He threw out Tanner Dodson attempting to score from third after a flyout in the sixth, keeping the lead at 4-2. Last Sunday, he closed out the Beavers' win over Cal State Fullerton with a leaping catch at the right field fence that would have likely gone for extra bases. The catch was the last out of the game.

Follow Us On Social
For more information on the Oregon State baseball team, follow the club's official Twitter account at Twitter.com/BeaverBaseball, by Facebook at Facebook.com/OregonStateBaseball or on Instagram at Instagram.com/BeaverBaseball.

OUR MISSION
Oregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS).