College baseball: UO ralies to beat OSU 9-5 Tuesday, April 30 (e-edition)
Published 6:43 pm Wednesday, May 1, 2024
EUGENE — Bryce Boettcher clubbed two home runs and five pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts, and Oregon scored nine straight in a comeback win over No. 6 Oregon State.
Boettcher went 3-for-3 with a three-run homer in the second and the go-ahead two-run shot in the fourth and Brock Moore struck out eight straight over three innings as the Ducks went on to a 9-5 win over the Beavers Tuesday night in front of a season-high crowd of 4,130 at PK Park.
“These guys battle,” Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski said. “Some teams might have just rolled over and said, ‘We’re getting beat and this is embarrassing at home. It’s not the start we want.’ That wasn’t our team. Our team decided to take a different approach and that was nice to see them battle back.”
Ian Umlandt walked the bases loaded with one out in the first and OSU’s Jacob Krieg annihilated a 3-1 pitch 461 feet to left for a grand slam.
Umlandt threw 54 pitches, 26 strikes, and gave up four runs on two hits and four walks in just one inning of work, the shortest appearance by a UO starter since Turner Spoljaric went 1.0 IP against Stanford on May 25 in last year’s Pac-12 tournament.
Travis Bazzana led off the second with a solo shot to left, his 21st of the season, tying the OSU program record while giving the Beavers (33-11) a 5-0 lead.
After the homer, Moore retired nine straight OSU batters, including eight straight strikeouts. It was a season-high in strikeouts for Moore (2-0), a transfer from Menlo College, who threw a first-pitch strike to just one of the first six batters he faced but said he was able to locate his fastball, changeup and slider effectively.
“We had an idea of what was coming, we just did not hit it,” Oregon State coach Mitch Canham said. “We were prepped for a right-hander that throws 96-97, lands a slider and a good changeup. We just did not execute.”
Oregon (30-14) got on the board in the bottom of the second via a field error by Bazzana on a two-out chopper off the bat of Carter Garate. Boettcher followed with a three-run home run to left center to make it 5-4.
Mason Neville doubled to lead off the bottom of the third and two batters later Jeffery Heard singled him in to tie it at 5.
Garate singled and Boettcher clubbed another long ball to left center to put the Ducks ahead 7-5 after four.
“Today was definitely a special moment and to out with a win against the Beavers means a lot to my family and I,” said Boettcher, who is from Eugene. “Obviously you got to stay about business and one game at a time but I’m definitely taking a couple of extra steps around the field and looking around and taking it all in.”
Oregon hosts Utah for a three-game series Friday through Sunday, while OSU plays at Washington State Friday through Sunday.