Oregon State Baseball Bounces Back With 4-2 Win Over UC Irvine

4,066 fans shuffled into Goss Stadium on a picturesque Saturday afternoon with hopes that the Beavs would get back to winning ways after a Friday blowout loss to UC Irvine. All 4,066 left with a smile as Oregon State downed the Anteaters 4-2. With the win, the Beavs improved to 21-7 in 2025 while UCI fell to 23-6. The Beavers win snapped a 12-game UCI winning streak.

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Dax Whitney got the nod to start on the hill for Oregon State and made quick work of the Anteaters in the first inning, only needing 11 pitches to turn it over to the bottom half on the inning. The Beavs bats that were asleep on Friday night jolted awake Saturday in the bottom of the first. The start of the scoring came courtesy of Gavin Turley who notched his 42nd career home run (now three shy of Travis Bazzana's program record) with a two-run shot to give Oregon State a 2-0 lead going into the second.

Whitney was surgical in the top half of the second, retiring the side with three strikeouts. The Beavs went quietly in the bottom half of the inning after their hot start in the bottom of the first. Whitney trotted back out to the mound nursing a 2-0 lead for the beavs. Whitney would again put up another zero despite an Anteater reaching on a Caraway error. The Beavs made a bit of noise in the bottom half of the third, with Gavin Turley logging his second hit of the day, this time a single. However a Wilson Weber strikeout would end the inning.

Whitney would get tested in the top of the fourth, walking the leadoff hitter, but would settle in and find the zone on back-to-back strikeouts to end the 4th. Oregon State went quietly again in the bottom half of the 4th to set up what would be a nervous 5th inning for OSU fans. Whitney loaded the bases in the top half of the fifth, and was a strike away from getting out of the inning before he plunked Chase Call to force in a UCI run.

Whitney's day would be done as he went 4.2 innings, recording a career-high seven strikeouts and only allowing one unearned run on one hit.

RHP AJ Hutcheson would be called in from the bullpen and provided an immediate spark, getting UCI to flyout to center with the bases loaded to limit the damage to just one Anteater run. The Beavs held the slim 2-1 lead going into the bottom half of the fifth.

Oregon State stranded two runners in the bottom half of the fifth inning, Hutcheson would be asked to preserve the Beavs 2-1 lead going into the sixth inning. Hutcheson would go on to strike out a pair of Anteaters to go along with a groundout to inch the Beavs closer to a series equalizer. Second baseman AJ Singer would reach safely on an infield single in the bottom half of the sixth, but a Caraway double play cleared the bases and Macias grounded out to end the inning. Oregon State led 2-1 after six complete innings.

Hutcheson continued on the mound in the top half of the seventh, an error and a successful bunt saw the Anteaters have runners on the corners, Colin Yeaman grounded into a double play that scored a run for UCI and tied the game at 2-2 going into the stretch.

Jacob Krieg led things off for the Beavs in the bottom of the seventh and launched a moonshot to left field on a 0-1 count out The solo homer was Krieg's ninth of the season. The Beavs took a 3-2 lead into the top half of the eighth inning with AJ Hutcheson back on the mound. Hutcheson went on to strike out the side to end the eighth. Hutcheson would end the day with 4.1 innings of relief work, notching six strikeouts. AJ Singer connected for a solo homer in the bottom half of the eighth inning to give the Beavs an insurance run and the final run of the game scored by either side to make it 4-2.

Hutcheson and the Beavs defense picked up three consecutive outs in the top of the ninth to close out the win.

Oregon State and UCI conclude their series Sunday, with the rubber match's first pitch slated for 12:05 PST. The game will air live on Portlands KOIN and KOIN+.

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