Beaver Baseball Beats Xavier in Home Opener Behind Whitney's Gem
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Oregon State baseball picked up their third straight win on Friday night behind another stellar outing from sophomore phenom Dax Whitney, the nation's leader in strikeouts.
In their home opener at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field for the 2025-2026 season, the Beavers put together a 4-2 victory with eight hits and one error.
Whitney got the win, moving his record to 2-0 on the year. Albert Roblez recorded his fifth save of the season.
The Beavers did all of their offensive damage in a single inning, but that was enough on Friday night behind Whitney's gem.
Bryce Hubbard got things started in the top of the second inning by blasting a one-out solo homer, his second of the year. After an AJ Singer single in the following at-bat, three of the next four Beavers got a free pass, with Talt drawing a bases-loaded walk to extend the OSU lead to 2-0.
A mound visit from the pitching coach with Xavier ace Ryan Piech wasn't able to stop the bleeding, as Adam Haight knocked one right back up the middle for a two-out hit that plated two more runs, making it 4-0.
The Beaver offense didn't do any more damage after this, but they were able to turn the show over to their superstar right-hander. After issuing a walk with one out in the top of the second, Whitney struck out four of the next five batters he faced, and retired ten in a row.
Xavier left-fielder Landon Mensik launched a solo shot off of Dax in the fifth, but this was his only real blemish on the evening. He went 6.1 innings, giving up just one run and striking out eleven. Whitney has now struck out 45 batters total on the season, including 39 in his last three starts.
Oregon State's record moves to 8-4 on the year. The Beavers are back at it again Saturday at 3:05 p.m. ET, for game two of a four-game set against the Musketeers.
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Ben Pahl is a sportswriter and broadcaster based in Portland, Oregon. His work covering college and professional sports has been featured by the Orange Media Network at Oregon State University as well as KBVR.fm. His other career stops in sports include the Portland Pickles baseball club and the NBA G-League's Rip City Remix.