Photo by: Karl Maasdam
'You Just Don't Give Oregon State Extra Chances' - An Oral History Of The 9th Inning Comeback
May 28, 2020 | Baseball
Photos By Karl Maasdam
The Oregon State baseball team won its third national title on June 28, 2018, with a 5-0 win over Arkansas. Truly, a memorable day for any Oregon State fan.
The previous day, June 27, ranks up there in terms of historical moments thanks to a three-run ninth-inning comeback to stave off a potential College World Series-ending loss to the Razorbacks.
The Beavers who helped send the series to a third game recall the ninth-inning comeback below.
The Beavers entered the ninth trailing 3-2 after Arkansas scored a pair of runs in the fifth to take the lead. Oregon State was down to its last three outs with Zak Taylor, Andy Armstrong and Nick Madrigal due to come to the plate. The Beavers were set to face Arkansas closer Matt Cronin, who saved a school-record 14 games in 2018. He had come into the eighth inning to get the final two outs of the frame before returning for the ninth.
Trevor Larnach: "Obviously we were aware that we were down but there was never a fear of losing, a fear of failure. All of us had that same kind of fight and confidence within ourselves as a team. That was really built on by Coach Casey and the whole staff that year and previous years."
Nick Madrigal: "Everyone was really confident. I don't think anyone was feeling down, or out of it at any point."
Cadyn Grenier: "With our team, we never panicked. We were always super calm and collected; you could never tell anything was bothering us. Going into that inning, knowing we were down, it kind of got to people a little bit like 'we might lose here' and you would have never known it but we were all thinking the same thing: 'we have to get this run back or obviously everything is over.' That was absolutely the last thing that we would have ever wanted."
Larnach: "As Case would say it, it comes down to who has the most will. It's obvious from a team standpoint, our collective will overcame pretty much every situation the whole season."
Taylor came to the plate first in the ninth, and was 1-for-3 entering the inning, singling in the fifth. The then-junior jumped out to a 2-0 count before taking a strike and fouling a pitch off. He took a ball then fouled off two more pitches before walking on the eighth pitch of the at bat.
Zak Taylor: "My whole goal was to just do my job. I knew in that moment I just needed to get on base. There really wasn't any other option in my mind."
Madrigal: "That first at bat, for Zak Taylor, everyone was locked in. He had an amazing at bat; I just actually watched a replay of it and it was unbelievable. He doesn't get enough credit for how many pitches he fouled off and how many balls he took that were close."
Taylor: "Clearly, bottom of the order, they don't want to turn the order over, so he's (Cronin) going to come after me. I knew that I was going to get a ton of heaters. I knew he didn't have a ton of feel for his breaking ball. He threw me an 0-0 breaking ball and bounced it. I knew after that I probably wasn't going to get a breaking ball again. Really, I was just trying to look for something middle of the plate. I wasn't trying to be too specific, and I wanted to put a good swing on it. If anything, I knew he liked to throw at the top of the zone."
Zach Clayton: "That was one of the best at bats I have ever seen. He just battled to the very end and he won because he was relentless. He knew the job he had to do. If you know Zak Taylor, you know that he's going to get the job done when his name is called."
Andy Armstrong: "It was huge, you know. It didn't matter how he got on base, the goal was to get the leadoff man on. It's hard to recall what exactly I was thinking on deck, because it was such a huge moment. It was probably the biggest walk in Oregon State baseball history."
Pat Casey: "Momentum-wise, walking him was huge. That just takes the air out of you."
Larnach: "The ninth inning always seems like it takes the longest but that's just because the other team has the last chance to fight for the win. Especially our team, when we get a guy on in the last inning and we're down and we're going to come and tie it, that's got to be pretty deflating for the other team."
Clayton: "As Z Tay was walking up to the box, the coaches told me as he gets on base, then I am going to pinch run for him."
Armstrong was called to the on deck circle for the ninth, and entered the game as a pinch hitter for Jones. Also entering the game was Clayton, as a pinch runner for Taylor. Armstrong bunted the first pitch he saw from Cronin, but foul, before moving Clayton to second on a sacrifice bunt down the first-base line.
Armstrong: "Once I saw Zak trot down to first base, it was my turn. The biggest thing from Zak Taylor leading off the inning to me was 'what can I do for the team once it's done. It's the next man's up type of thing.'"
Grenier: "The only people who realize how big those two at bats were are baseball people; people who know the game well. Everyone knows from our perspective that I could have never done what I did. Trevor never could have done what he did if Zak doesn't get on and then Army doesn't get that bunt down. Those are the two biggest at bats of the College World Series because without those we don't get the chance to tie it, we don't get a chance to win."
Casey: "Well, it kind of makes me laugh now because I did say something to Andy and that was 'Andy, don't bunt anything above your hands.' Any time you bunt anything above your hands, against a guy with big velocity, it goes straight up in the air. First thing he does is bunt the ball up at his eyes, but it went out of play. Heat of the moment, that's pretty tough. He got it down and made an unbelievable bunt. That ball he bunted down the first base line was not an easy bunt; it was running in on him at probably 93 miles per hour. It was a huge bunt. I had a ton of confidence in him or I probably never would have done that."
Madrigal, who had been drafted fourth overall just a couple weeks prior by the Chicago White Sox, stepped to the plate with one down and Clayton on second. The junior fouled off the first pitch he saw and eventually battled to a 2-2 count. He took an inside pitch from Cronin and grounded out to first baseman Jared Gates, getting the runner to third. It was, however, the second out of the inning.
Madrigal: "I was 100 percent trying to tie up the ballgame. I felt like I was seeing the ball well. Some of the pitches I fouled off I just missed them somehow. I remember thinking 'man that was a good pitch to hit.' I fouled off a couple more pitches and just missed my pitch. You know, that's baseball. Sometimes you're going to take your best swing of the day and just miss it by an inch or so. It ended up working out in the big picture."
Larnach: "Now that you think about it, there wasn't one guy that didn't do their job that inning. Army, bunting in that situation, which is almost harder than hitting, some people would say. I would say that. Nick fought for his at bat."
Clayton: "Madrigal's at bat – I've never seen barrel control like that. That ball he hit was so inside on his hands and he put it down the first base line. I didn't have time to think about it at the moment, but that was just crazy hand-eye coordination by Nick."
Casey: "He had squared some balls the day before and didn't have any hits to speak of but that isn't necessarily an indicator you are or aren't swinging the bat well. I don't think Nick ever loses confidence."
Armstrong: "It's how Oregon State goes about its business. There's no accident that inning happened the way it did. We were preparing for moments like that in the early fall. It's everywhere between controlling the zone in batting practice to getting those bunts down, it's all those little details that happen in the offseason coming together when it matters most. Case did a good job of putting pressure on you in practice when there's no one in the stands. So when it matters at the end of the season like that, it's something you're used to."
Casey: "What Nick did there, he eliminated any play at the plate. He eliminated, I think, the pitcher's ability to throw the ball down in the dirt because he's afraid of a wild pitch and that Clayton would score. That at bat is so overlooked because Cronin's got a good slider but he had trouble with command so he couldn't really cut it loose because if that ball gets to the backstop, he scores. Nick moving the runner changed more than people think about how Cronin threw to Cadyn."
Two outs, the tying run just 90 feet away. That was the situation Grenier saw as he came to the plate. The junior was already 2-for-4 on the day, driving in a run on a bunt single in the fifth before singling again in the seventh. Grenier battled Cronin to a 1-1 count before fouling a pitch off down the right field line. A catchable ball that landed a few feet foul in a triangle of Arkansas players. Grenier then took a ball to move the count to 2-2 before fouling off the fifth pitch of the AB. The sixth, well, Grenier, connected and drove the ball to the six hole – the spot between the third baseman and shortstop.
Grenier: "I was looking for a fastball every single pitch. He only threw two offspeed pitches in the entire inning before it got to me. My guess is that we was going to threw fastball every single pitch and he did."
Casey: "Obviously we had a scouting report on their pitching staff and Cronin was one of the primary guys we'd had information on because we knew we were going to face him at crunch time. You've got to hunt fastball. Then you've got to get him in the zone."
Grenier: "When it first came off my bat, it was headed pretty far right. I thought it was going to get out and then it just started to tail back into the field of play."
Madrigal: "I remember looking at it and thinking 'slice away, slice away,' you know, do something weird in the air. There wasn't one thought of me thinking 'this is it, we're done.' I just remember thinking 'OK, something happen, something happen.' And then once I saw it hit the ground, I remember my first reaction just thinking 'something crazy is going to happen after this.'"
Larnach: "I could remember pretty clearly at that point it comes down to whether they catch it or not and that's it. Ultimately there was no negative thinking. It landed obviously and it gave everyone another breath, another life for our team."
Casey: "Because of that little triangle there, that's about the only spot that was odd in that whole stadium. There's a little wedge piece right there. When he hit it, I thought it was out. By the time I stood up and got to a step on the dugout, the ball had just bounced. So I never had the thought of 'it's over.' I never had that empty feeling. I just never had that."
Clayton: "I was just jogging to home thinking 'get out please. Please get out of play.' I'm just banking on that happening."
Taylor: "I knew there was a ton of foul territory over there and looking at the trajectory of the ball, I was like 'ah, I think that's going to stay in.' But then you can see their second baseman hustle over there and it kind of looks like he's going to overrun it. And then the right fielder doesn't look like he's calling for it. I thought maybe there was a chance. Then all of a sudden, it drops, and I think everyone was like, 'oh, no way, this is our chance.' I think that was the best thing about that, was knowing that like, 'OK, you shouldn't have given us the second chance.'"
Grenier: "I was just like 'wow, OK.' I had to take a couple deep breaths and re-organize my thoughts because at that point I was down, and then it's oh man, I have to get back into competitive mode and get after it. I remember there being a lot of chatter from the dugout, saying 'new life, you got this', stuff like that. Then I got back in the box and knew I had a second life. That's not going to happen again; I'm going to make him beat me in a different way."
Madrigal: "I've watched enough baseball in my life. When a team gets another chance, especially in a pressure situation, something usually happens."
Casey: "I can tell you, once it hit the ground, I thought this is going to be a different at bat from here on out. Now that you look back and see their dugout, see their coach and their pitching coach, and they roll their eyes, and say 'you just don't give Oregon State extra chances.'"
Clayton: "I knew Cadyn was going to make that one hurt. You get a second chance and knowing the player he is, you knew he was going to get the job done."
Madrigal: "Giving a team extra life, especially in that moment, I knew something was going to happen. That's baseball; you give a guy another life and something is going to happen."
Larnach: "When Cadyn's battling with two strikes and he's the last out, there's so many distractions, not just internally, but externally, of course. That can keep you off your game. All this different stuff can distract you from the moment. It's evident he didn't let that happen; he fought to the very end."
Grenier: "One-hundred percent as soon as I hit it, I just knew. I hit it hard and I took a quick peek as to where the ball was going, I knew for a fact it was going to get through. Two steps out of the box I was 100 percent sure that I had just tied it."
Clayton: "It was hit hard. It was a little further than the third baseman so I thought it had a chance. I took off and once I was about three-quarters of the way there I looked back and saw it through, and I just lost my mind like everyone else."
The dugout and Beaver Nation were still celebrating the tie ballgame when Oregon State cleanup hitter Trevor Larnach stepped to the plate. Larnach singled in the first inning, but was retired in his next three at bats leading up to the ninth. The junior jumped out to a 2-0 count before drilling an offering from Cronin over the right field fence. That scored Grenier and gave Oregon State its 5-3 lead.
Larnach: "The only thing I told myself was attack fastball and pretty much be early for it because he was throwing mid-90s. If you're late, you know, just a tick late on a fastball like that in a lefty-lefty situation, that can easily turn the tables. If you miss your pitch, it might be the only pitch you get. He wasn't throwing the ball to where he wanted it that whole inning. He threw me two balls and I was seeing the ball good, just getting my timing down. I was looking to be early on a fastball and he just happened to throw it middle in."
Armstrong: "I don't know if I thought it was going out, but I did know Cadyn had a good chance of scoring either way. Trevor is a strong guy with a lot of power, of course, and he's hit a lot of top spun home runs to the pull side, just like that one. It wasn't a no-doubter off the bat from my angle but, I'll tell you what, when that thing went over, there were good feelings."
Casey: "I thought it was gone. I did. It happened so fast you didn't have a chance to think about it too long."
Madrigal: "I actually thought it was too low; I thought it was going to hit the wall. I remember right off the bat thinking 'get up, get up ball' and for it to go out was amazing."
Clayton: "I had just gotten back in the dugout, put my helmet back in. I heard him hit it and looked up to see a missile and I ran to the other side of the dugout to see if it was going to make it out. Sure enough, it did. I barely had a second to finish celebrating with everybody and Larnach already hit a home run, one of the most iconic ones I've ever seen."
Grenier: "I never thought it was out because as soon as he hit it I thought it was a double. I just put my head down and started busting my butt to try and score. I knew Jenks (assistant coach Andy Jenkins) was going to send me if it was even close. So I put my head down and started going as hard as I could. When I picked my head up around second to look at Coach Jenkins to see he if was going to send me or not, he had both hands and feet in the air, jumping. I took a peek back and a field umpire was signaling home run."
Taylor: "That ball was touched. I was in the far left corner of the dugout. That might have been the coolest sports moment I've ever been a part of, I mean besides dogpiling. Trevor coming back once he crossed home plate, we were all out there, it was crazy."
Grenier: "It was unbelievable."
Larnach: I knew I got it. That ball that I hit had the same type of feeling that the other home runs did. I hit it as hard as I could with a good trajectory. I was yelling down the line 'just get out, get out.' And you know it went over and the emotions were through the roof, obviously. I'm usually more laid back when it comes to my emotions but at that point everything went through the roof. When momentum changes like that it's a big deal."
Taylor: "We were all little kids again. Like we were all Little Leaguers and someone just hit the game-winning home run. It was kind of like that."
After the comeback, the word was momentum. The Beavers had all of it after retiring Arkansas in the bottom half of the ninth. Oregon State carried it into the next day in the final game of the 2018 season.
Casey: "When he went deep, I can tell you right now, there was a lot of people, in my opinion, who were in another uniform who thought 'we just lost our opportunity to win a national championship because we aren't beating them tomorrow night.'"
Madrigal: "I remember after that game happened just being so excited. I remember getting on the bus and everyone saying 'tomorrow, these guys have no chance. These guys are screwed. This is our game now. They had their chance to catch that fly ball and there's no way these guys are going to beat us tomorrow.' I felt like everyone on the team felt that and with us being so confident all year long, we definitely had the momentum after that game."
Taylor: "Our whole journey through Omaha, playing in multiple elimination games and then losing the first game of the Championship Series, and riding that low, then that high; it didn't really matter if we had our backs against the wall. We had trust in each other and everyone knew their jobs. And really, at the end of the day, everyone wanted to win and that was the biggest thing. We had the talent to do it, too. So you have a combination of those things. That's why I tell people there was no pressure, I mean there wasn't. It was just playing baseball, at that point."
Grenier: "It really reinforced how tough our team was and how tough were to beat. It really gave everyone that sense of 'hey, we are the hardest team to beat in college baseball.' At this point, we knew we had all the momentum. We knew they were going to be down because they were shell-shocked from that last inning. I remember going into the next day and we were 100 percent sure we were going to win because we had that feeling of 'hey we are going to be the toughest dudes to ever walk the Earth today and to try to make them just rip this jersey off us and beat us.' I don't think anybody had any doubt that we were going to be able to do that."
Taylor: "We knew they were a good team, a very talented team. We had to come out and play it the next day, but having just how things went, and feeling that turn, that momentum, I feel like that gave us everything we had to get up for that game the next day. We were there for a long time and yes, your body is tired, you're dealing with the heat and humidity, but those things don't really matter, especially when you're playing for a national championship. And your season comes down to literally the last game."
Larnach: The game was over and I was sitting waiting for our press conference with Coach Casey and a couple other players. I was watching their press conference and you can just tell; that's when I saw they were deflated. You know we literally just took the soul out of them. At that point, before I went into the press conference, I told Coach Casey 'they're done for. We're winning tomorrow and there's no chance we don't win. Just look at the fake confidence they have.' You can't just show that you're deflated and defeated but you could tell it was bugging them and rightfully so."
The Oregon State baseball team won its third national title on June 28, 2018, with a 5-0 win over Arkansas. Truly, a memorable day for any Oregon State fan.
The previous day, June 27, ranks up there in terms of historical moments thanks to a three-run ninth-inning comeback to stave off a potential College World Series-ending loss to the Razorbacks.
The Beavers who helped send the series to a third game recall the ninth-inning comeback below.
The Beavers entered the ninth trailing 3-2 after Arkansas scored a pair of runs in the fifth to take the lead. Oregon State was down to its last three outs with Zak Taylor, Andy Armstrong and Nick Madrigal due to come to the plate. The Beavers were set to face Arkansas closer Matt Cronin, who saved a school-record 14 games in 2018. He had come into the eighth inning to get the final two outs of the frame before returning for the ninth.
Trevor Larnach: "Obviously we were aware that we were down but there was never a fear of losing, a fear of failure. All of us had that same kind of fight and confidence within ourselves as a team. That was really built on by Coach Casey and the whole staff that year and previous years."
Nick Madrigal: "Everyone was really confident. I don't think anyone was feeling down, or out of it at any point."
Cadyn Grenier: "With our team, we never panicked. We were always super calm and collected; you could never tell anything was bothering us. Going into that inning, knowing we were down, it kind of got to people a little bit like 'we might lose here' and you would have never known it but we were all thinking the same thing: 'we have to get this run back or obviously everything is over.' That was absolutely the last thing that we would have ever wanted."
Larnach: "As Case would say it, it comes down to who has the most will. It's obvious from a team standpoint, our collective will overcame pretty much every situation the whole season."
Taylor came to the plate first in the ninth, and was 1-for-3 entering the inning, singling in the fifth. The then-junior jumped out to a 2-0 count before taking a strike and fouling a pitch off. He took a ball then fouled off two more pitches before walking on the eighth pitch of the at bat.
Zak Taylor: "My whole goal was to just do my job. I knew in that moment I just needed to get on base. There really wasn't any other option in my mind."
Madrigal: "That first at bat, for Zak Taylor, everyone was locked in. He had an amazing at bat; I just actually watched a replay of it and it was unbelievable. He doesn't get enough credit for how many pitches he fouled off and how many balls he took that were close."
Taylor: "Clearly, bottom of the order, they don't want to turn the order over, so he's (Cronin) going to come after me. I knew that I was going to get a ton of heaters. I knew he didn't have a ton of feel for his breaking ball. He threw me an 0-0 breaking ball and bounced it. I knew after that I probably wasn't going to get a breaking ball again. Really, I was just trying to look for something middle of the plate. I wasn't trying to be too specific, and I wanted to put a good swing on it. If anything, I knew he liked to throw at the top of the zone."
Zach Clayton: "That was one of the best at bats I have ever seen. He just battled to the very end and he won because he was relentless. He knew the job he had to do. If you know Zak Taylor, you know that he's going to get the job done when his name is called."
Andy Armstrong: "It was huge, you know. It didn't matter how he got on base, the goal was to get the leadoff man on. It's hard to recall what exactly I was thinking on deck, because it was such a huge moment. It was probably the biggest walk in Oregon State baseball history."
Pat Casey: "Momentum-wise, walking him was huge. That just takes the air out of you."
Larnach: "The ninth inning always seems like it takes the longest but that's just because the other team has the last chance to fight for the win. Especially our team, when we get a guy on in the last inning and we're down and we're going to come and tie it, that's got to be pretty deflating for the other team."
Clayton: "As Z Tay was walking up to the box, the coaches told me as he gets on base, then I am going to pinch run for him."
Armstrong was called to the on deck circle for the ninth, and entered the game as a pinch hitter for Jones. Also entering the game was Clayton, as a pinch runner for Taylor. Armstrong bunted the first pitch he saw from Cronin, but foul, before moving Clayton to second on a sacrifice bunt down the first-base line.
Armstrong: "Once I saw Zak trot down to first base, it was my turn. The biggest thing from Zak Taylor leading off the inning to me was 'what can I do for the team once it's done. It's the next man's up type of thing.'"
Grenier: "The only people who realize how big those two at bats were are baseball people; people who know the game well. Everyone knows from our perspective that I could have never done what I did. Trevor never could have done what he did if Zak doesn't get on and then Army doesn't get that bunt down. Those are the two biggest at bats of the College World Series because without those we don't get the chance to tie it, we don't get a chance to win."
Casey: "Well, it kind of makes me laugh now because I did say something to Andy and that was 'Andy, don't bunt anything above your hands.' Any time you bunt anything above your hands, against a guy with big velocity, it goes straight up in the air. First thing he does is bunt the ball up at his eyes, but it went out of play. Heat of the moment, that's pretty tough. He got it down and made an unbelievable bunt. That ball he bunted down the first base line was not an easy bunt; it was running in on him at probably 93 miles per hour. It was a huge bunt. I had a ton of confidence in him or I probably never would have done that."
Madrigal, who had been drafted fourth overall just a couple weeks prior by the Chicago White Sox, stepped to the plate with one down and Clayton on second. The junior fouled off the first pitch he saw and eventually battled to a 2-2 count. He took an inside pitch from Cronin and grounded out to first baseman Jared Gates, getting the runner to third. It was, however, the second out of the inning.
Madrigal: "I was 100 percent trying to tie up the ballgame. I felt like I was seeing the ball well. Some of the pitches I fouled off I just missed them somehow. I remember thinking 'man that was a good pitch to hit.' I fouled off a couple more pitches and just missed my pitch. You know, that's baseball. Sometimes you're going to take your best swing of the day and just miss it by an inch or so. It ended up working out in the big picture."
Larnach: "Now that you think about it, there wasn't one guy that didn't do their job that inning. Army, bunting in that situation, which is almost harder than hitting, some people would say. I would say that. Nick fought for his at bat."
Clayton: "Madrigal's at bat – I've never seen barrel control like that. That ball he hit was so inside on his hands and he put it down the first base line. I didn't have time to think about it at the moment, but that was just crazy hand-eye coordination by Nick."
Casey: "He had squared some balls the day before and didn't have any hits to speak of but that isn't necessarily an indicator you are or aren't swinging the bat well. I don't think Nick ever loses confidence."
Armstrong: "It's how Oregon State goes about its business. There's no accident that inning happened the way it did. We were preparing for moments like that in the early fall. It's everywhere between controlling the zone in batting practice to getting those bunts down, it's all those little details that happen in the offseason coming together when it matters most. Case did a good job of putting pressure on you in practice when there's no one in the stands. So when it matters at the end of the season like that, it's something you're used to."
Casey: "What Nick did there, he eliminated any play at the plate. He eliminated, I think, the pitcher's ability to throw the ball down in the dirt because he's afraid of a wild pitch and that Clayton would score. That at bat is so overlooked because Cronin's got a good slider but he had trouble with command so he couldn't really cut it loose because if that ball gets to the backstop, he scores. Nick moving the runner changed more than people think about how Cronin threw to Cadyn."
Two outs, the tying run just 90 feet away. That was the situation Grenier saw as he came to the plate. The junior was already 2-for-4 on the day, driving in a run on a bunt single in the fifth before singling again in the seventh. Grenier battled Cronin to a 1-1 count before fouling a pitch off down the right field line. A catchable ball that landed a few feet foul in a triangle of Arkansas players. Grenier then took a ball to move the count to 2-2 before fouling off the fifth pitch of the AB. The sixth, well, Grenier, connected and drove the ball to the six hole – the spot between the third baseman and shortstop.
Grenier: "I was looking for a fastball every single pitch. He only threw two offspeed pitches in the entire inning before it got to me. My guess is that we was going to threw fastball every single pitch and he did."
Casey: "Obviously we had a scouting report on their pitching staff and Cronin was one of the primary guys we'd had information on because we knew we were going to face him at crunch time. You've got to hunt fastball. Then you've got to get him in the zone."
Grenier: "When it first came off my bat, it was headed pretty far right. I thought it was going to get out and then it just started to tail back into the field of play."
Madrigal: "I remember looking at it and thinking 'slice away, slice away,' you know, do something weird in the air. There wasn't one thought of me thinking 'this is it, we're done.' I just remember thinking 'OK, something happen, something happen.' And then once I saw it hit the ground, I remember my first reaction just thinking 'something crazy is going to happen after this.'"
Larnach: "I could remember pretty clearly at that point it comes down to whether they catch it or not and that's it. Ultimately there was no negative thinking. It landed obviously and it gave everyone another breath, another life for our team."
Casey: "Because of that little triangle there, that's about the only spot that was odd in that whole stadium. There's a little wedge piece right there. When he hit it, I thought it was out. By the time I stood up and got to a step on the dugout, the ball had just bounced. So I never had the thought of 'it's over.' I never had that empty feeling. I just never had that."
Clayton: "I was just jogging to home thinking 'get out please. Please get out of play.' I'm just banking on that happening."
Taylor: "I knew there was a ton of foul territory over there and looking at the trajectory of the ball, I was like 'ah, I think that's going to stay in.' But then you can see their second baseman hustle over there and it kind of looks like he's going to overrun it. And then the right fielder doesn't look like he's calling for it. I thought maybe there was a chance. Then all of a sudden, it drops, and I think everyone was like, 'oh, no way, this is our chance.' I think that was the best thing about that, was knowing that like, 'OK, you shouldn't have given us the second chance.'"
Grenier: "I was just like 'wow, OK.' I had to take a couple deep breaths and re-organize my thoughts because at that point I was down, and then it's oh man, I have to get back into competitive mode and get after it. I remember there being a lot of chatter from the dugout, saying 'new life, you got this', stuff like that. Then I got back in the box and knew I had a second life. That's not going to happen again; I'm going to make him beat me in a different way."
Madrigal: "I've watched enough baseball in my life. When a team gets another chance, especially in a pressure situation, something usually happens."
Casey: "I can tell you, once it hit the ground, I thought this is going to be a different at bat from here on out. Now that you look back and see their dugout, see their coach and their pitching coach, and they roll their eyes, and say 'you just don't give Oregon State extra chances.'"
Clayton: "I knew Cadyn was going to make that one hurt. You get a second chance and knowing the player he is, you knew he was going to get the job done."
Madrigal: "Giving a team extra life, especially in that moment, I knew something was going to happen. That's baseball; you give a guy another life and something is going to happen."
Larnach: "When Cadyn's battling with two strikes and he's the last out, there's so many distractions, not just internally, but externally, of course. That can keep you off your game. All this different stuff can distract you from the moment. It's evident he didn't let that happen; he fought to the very end."
Grenier: "One-hundred percent as soon as I hit it, I just knew. I hit it hard and I took a quick peek as to where the ball was going, I knew for a fact it was going to get through. Two steps out of the box I was 100 percent sure that I had just tied it."
Clayton: "It was hit hard. It was a little further than the third baseman so I thought it had a chance. I took off and once I was about three-quarters of the way there I looked back and saw it through, and I just lost my mind like everyone else."
The dugout and Beaver Nation were still celebrating the tie ballgame when Oregon State cleanup hitter Trevor Larnach stepped to the plate. Larnach singled in the first inning, but was retired in his next three at bats leading up to the ninth. The junior jumped out to a 2-0 count before drilling an offering from Cronin over the right field fence. That scored Grenier and gave Oregon State its 5-3 lead.
Larnach: "The only thing I told myself was attack fastball and pretty much be early for it because he was throwing mid-90s. If you're late, you know, just a tick late on a fastball like that in a lefty-lefty situation, that can easily turn the tables. If you miss your pitch, it might be the only pitch you get. He wasn't throwing the ball to where he wanted it that whole inning. He threw me two balls and I was seeing the ball good, just getting my timing down. I was looking to be early on a fastball and he just happened to throw it middle in."
Armstrong: "I don't know if I thought it was going out, but I did know Cadyn had a good chance of scoring either way. Trevor is a strong guy with a lot of power, of course, and he's hit a lot of top spun home runs to the pull side, just like that one. It wasn't a no-doubter off the bat from my angle but, I'll tell you what, when that thing went over, there were good feelings."
Casey: "I thought it was gone. I did. It happened so fast you didn't have a chance to think about it too long."
Madrigal: "I actually thought it was too low; I thought it was going to hit the wall. I remember right off the bat thinking 'get up, get up ball' and for it to go out was amazing."
Clayton: "I had just gotten back in the dugout, put my helmet back in. I heard him hit it and looked up to see a missile and I ran to the other side of the dugout to see if it was going to make it out. Sure enough, it did. I barely had a second to finish celebrating with everybody and Larnach already hit a home run, one of the most iconic ones I've ever seen."
Grenier: "I never thought it was out because as soon as he hit it I thought it was a double. I just put my head down and started busting my butt to try and score. I knew Jenks (assistant coach Andy Jenkins) was going to send me if it was even close. So I put my head down and started going as hard as I could. When I picked my head up around second to look at Coach Jenkins to see he if was going to send me or not, he had both hands and feet in the air, jumping. I took a peek back and a field umpire was signaling home run."
Taylor: "That ball was touched. I was in the far left corner of the dugout. That might have been the coolest sports moment I've ever been a part of, I mean besides dogpiling. Trevor coming back once he crossed home plate, we were all out there, it was crazy."
Grenier: "It was unbelievable."
Larnach: I knew I got it. That ball that I hit had the same type of feeling that the other home runs did. I hit it as hard as I could with a good trajectory. I was yelling down the line 'just get out, get out.' And you know it went over and the emotions were through the roof, obviously. I'm usually more laid back when it comes to my emotions but at that point everything went through the roof. When momentum changes like that it's a big deal."
Taylor: "We were all little kids again. Like we were all Little Leaguers and someone just hit the game-winning home run. It was kind of like that."
After the comeback, the word was momentum. The Beavers had all of it after retiring Arkansas in the bottom half of the ninth. Oregon State carried it into the next day in the final game of the 2018 season.
Casey: "When he went deep, I can tell you right now, there was a lot of people, in my opinion, who were in another uniform who thought 'we just lost our opportunity to win a national championship because we aren't beating them tomorrow night.'"
Madrigal: "I remember after that game happened just being so excited. I remember getting on the bus and everyone saying 'tomorrow, these guys have no chance. These guys are screwed. This is our game now. They had their chance to catch that fly ball and there's no way these guys are going to beat us tomorrow.' I felt like everyone on the team felt that and with us being so confident all year long, we definitely had the momentum after that game."
Taylor: "Our whole journey through Omaha, playing in multiple elimination games and then losing the first game of the Championship Series, and riding that low, then that high; it didn't really matter if we had our backs against the wall. We had trust in each other and everyone knew their jobs. And really, at the end of the day, everyone wanted to win and that was the biggest thing. We had the talent to do it, too. So you have a combination of those things. That's why I tell people there was no pressure, I mean there wasn't. It was just playing baseball, at that point."
Grenier: "It really reinforced how tough our team was and how tough were to beat. It really gave everyone that sense of 'hey, we are the hardest team to beat in college baseball.' At this point, we knew we had all the momentum. We knew they were going to be down because they were shell-shocked from that last inning. I remember going into the next day and we were 100 percent sure we were going to win because we had that feeling of 'hey we are going to be the toughest dudes to ever walk the Earth today and to try to make them just rip this jersey off us and beat us.' I don't think anybody had any doubt that we were going to be able to do that."
Taylor: "We knew they were a good team, a very talented team. We had to come out and play it the next day, but having just how things went, and feeling that turn, that momentum, I feel like that gave us everything we had to get up for that game the next day. We were there for a long time and yes, your body is tired, you're dealing with the heat and humidity, but those things don't really matter, especially when you're playing for a national championship. And your season comes down to literally the last game."
Larnach: The game was over and I was sitting waiting for our press conference with Coach Casey and a couple other players. I was watching their press conference and you can just tell; that's when I saw they were deflated. You know we literally just took the soul out of them. At that point, before I went into the press conference, I told Coach Casey 'they're done for. We're winning tomorrow and there's no chance we don't win. Just look at the fake confidence they have.' You can't just show that you're deflated and defeated but you could tell it was bugging them and rightfully so."
Players Mentioned
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