Beaver Baseball Keeps Rolling, Defeats Washington 5-2 in Portland
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Oregon State baseball defeated Washington 5-2 in front of a sold-out crowd at Hillsboro Ballpark on Tuesday night. With the win, the fifth-ranked Beavs improved to 19-4 on the season. Washington dropped to 11-15 on the year.
OSU finished with ten hits and two errors, compared to seven hits and one error by the Huskies. James DeCremer was the winning pitcher for the first time this season, moving to 1-0. AJ Hutcheson also earned his second save of the season in the Beaver victory.
Kellen Oakes was given the nod to start on the hill for the Beavs Tuesday. He would have a shaky first inning, plunking a batter, walking another, and surrendering a single before ending the frame with a pair of groundouts.
Aiva Arquette, the former Husky, had no lost love for his former team as he got hot early in the first with a double that very well could have been a homer at Goss. It was knotted at 0's after one, Oakes would calm down in the top of the second, only surrendering one hit.
Oregon State struck first in the bottom of the second in an unusual way. Trent Caraway scored from second base after UW's Tommy Brandenburg attempted to pick him off, but his throw hit Caraway, who would end up beating the ensuing throw at home plate.
HEADS UP HUSTLE TRENT CARAWAY!#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/RZTEzaeDGG
— Oregon State Baseball (@BeaverBaseball) March 26, 2025
Bryce Johnson would be called on to relieve Oakes in the top of the third, making his Oregon State debut. He would surrender one run on a sac fly, but would get out of the inning throwing only eight pitches. The Beavs went quietly in the bottom of the third. and turned things back over to Johnson who came out to pitch the fourth.
In the fourth, Johnson would allow a base knock with the second E5 of the inning, moving the runner to second and a flyout moving the runner to third. The Beavs would call up the bullpen and bring in lefty Max Fraser. Fraser would allow a two-out base hit to score the runner from third, and the Beavs would go into the bottom of the fourth trailing 2-1.
Oregon State would have trouble mustering any offense throughout the early part of the game, grounding into a double play in the bottom of the fourth followed by a Wilson Weber strikeout. The Beavs would empty the clip on the bullpen in this matchup, calling on Decremer in the top of the fifth to steady the ship. Decremer did exactly that with a 1-2-3 inning that included two groundouts and a strikeout.
The Beavs' bats woke up in the bottom of the fifth with Singer reaching on a single and Arquette moving him over to third. Gavin Turley then connected for a two-RBI double that scored both Singer and Arquette and the Beavs took a 3-2 lead.
In the top of the sixth, the Beavs did not hesitate to move to the bullpen once more, this time calling on Laif Palmer to work out of a jam. Palmer took the mound inheriting two runners and responded with a quick strikeout to end the inning. Oregon State went quietly in the sixth and Palmer would be asked to face the top of the order going into the top of the seventh. Palmer would retire the side and Oregon State's one-run lead would stay intact going into the stretch.
Arquette continued to torment his former team in the bottom of the seventh, launching a two-run bomb that went 407 feet to left-center to make it 5-2 Oregon State.
Have a night Aiva Arquette!
— Oregon State Baseball (@BeaverBaseball) March 26, 2025
His sixth home run of the night puts him 3-for-3 with a triple short of the cycle.#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/8Y7NcRWsRu
The Beavs bullpen was up to the task in the final innings, with Joey Mundt and AJ Hutcheson making sure there was no late drama in Portland. Arquette went 3-3 from the dish with a walk, he was left needing only a triple Tuesday night to hit for the cycle.
The Beavs will turn their sights to Nebraska for a three-game weekend series in Lincoln. First pitch on Friday night slated for 5 p.m. PT on the Big Ten Network.
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Kyle is a 2019 graduate of Southern Oregon University and currently does play-by-play for SOU football and men’s and women’s soccer. He hosts a daily sports show in southern Oregon on The Ace Sports Radio, 107.9 FM and 1300 AM. Kyle also does play-by-play for the Rogue Valley Royals hockey team and the North Medford High School Black Tornado for TableRockSports.net. Kyle lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife and a Dalmatian named Penny.