Baseball Earns Saturday Win Over No. 21 Oregon State
CORVALLIS – The Utah baseball team got a great pitching performance from David Watson to get the 5-3 win over No. 21 Oregon State on Saturday to end the series.
Watson pitched 7.2 innings and only gave up three runs on five hits with seven strikeouts. It was his longest outing this season.
Oregon State got on the board first in the second inning to take a 1-0 lead.
Utah's bats were quiet until the fifth. Shea Kramer singled to get the inning started and then Jaylon McLaughlin reached on a fielders choice where the Beavers failed to tag Kramer out at second putting runners on first and second with no outs. Rykker Tom drew a walk to load the bases and Oregon State had their second passed ball of the inning to bring in Kramer from third. Next up, the Utes ran a suicide squeeze as Matt Richardson laid down a bunt with McLaughlin already breaking for home to give Utah the lead.
The Utes were far from done in the inning. Vinny Zavolta knocked his first of two doubles on the afternoon to score Tom and then Jayden Kiernan got in on the action with a single to score Zavolta from second. Utah scored four runs on three hits to go up 4-1 in the game.
Utah added to their lead with one run in the seventh inning to go up 5-1.
Once Utah got the lead, Watson stepped up his game and retired the next 11 batters. It wasn't until there were two outs in the eighth that Oregon State got something going with a single and a hit by pitch. With two men on, the Utes turned to Brayson Hurdsman out of the bullpen. After Oregon State doubled to right field to score two runs, Hurdsman got a strike out to get out of the inning and hold a 5-3 lead heading to the ninth.
In the ninth, Hurdsman got two quick strikeouts to start the inning. After a walk, he got the last out with a flyout to center to earn his second save of the season.
Watson got his second win in a row and his record moves to 2-3 on the season.
Zavolta went 2-5 on the afternoon with two doubles.
The win moves Utah to 6-15 and 3-6 in Pac-12 play. This was Utah's first win ever in Corvallis.
For the upcoming week, Utah will play Dixie State down in St. George, Utah on Tuesday, April 6 before hosting Washington State for a weekend series at Smith's Ballpark starting Friday, April 9 at 6 p.m.