Oregon State Wins Series Opener At USC

LOS ANGELES – Cooper Hjerpe tossed six scoreless innings and Garret Forrester went 3-for-3 as No, 5 Oregon State opened its three-game series versus USC with a 9-1 win over the Trojans Friday night at Dedeaux Field.
 
Hjerpe, making eighth start of the season, struck out nine and scattered four hits in his fourth quality start. The Capay, Calif., native struck out at least one batter in every full inning of work.
 
He picked up the win to push his Pac-12 best mark to 7-0.
 
Forrester singled in the first, fourth and seventh innings, scoring a run after his first hit of the day. He also walked twice to move to 35 on the year, extending his Pac-12 lead.
 
The Beavers (22-7 overall, 8-5 Pac-12 Conference) got to USC (17-10, 4-6) starter Isaac Esqueda early, scoring a run in the first before putting three more on the board in the second. Kyle Dernedde plated the first run of the second on a successful squeeze, then watched as Justin Boyd and Jacob Melton drove in runs on back-to-back at bats, putting the OSU lead at four.
 
Esqueda took the loss to drop to 1-1 this season. He allowed five hits and four runs in two innings.
 
The Beavers put five insurance runs on the board in the ninth, highlighted by a bases clearing triple by Jake Dukart. Dukart, starting at third, picked up two hits, as did Boyd and Wade Meckler. Overall, Oregon State finished with 11 hits as a team.
 
Next Up
The teams continue the three-game series Saturday at 2 p.m. PT.
 
Oregon State Notes
- Wade Meckler extended his hit streak to 10 games with a single on the first at bat of the game.
- Garret Forrester picked up his eight multiple-hit game of the season.
- Forrester will take a four-game hit streak into Saturday's game.
- Justin Boyd also recorded two hits for his 13 multi-hit effort.
- Boyd stole his 15th and 16th bases of the season in the ninth. That puts him one shy of UCLA's Kenny Oyama, who swiped one Friday night at Utah.
- Cooper Hjerpe picked up his 11th career win, 10 of which have come when he makes a start. Hjerpe has struck out 173 in 126 career innings as a starter.
- Hjerpe also has a Pac-12 best 77 strikeouts in just 47 2/3 innings this season.
- Hjerpe has struck out 26 in his last 14 innings of work while scattering six hits and a walk.
- The left-hander has 50 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings in Pac-12 play this season. Conference foes have recorded just 19 hits and five walks off him.
- Reid Sebby came on with two on and no outs in the seventh. He proceeded to get a double play ball and fly out to end the USC threat, throwing just four pitches in doing so.
- Jake Dukart has triples in back-to-back games against Portland and USC. Both triples have also come in the ninth inning.
- OSU has 13 triples as a team this season with four coming in the month of April.
- Oregon State's pitching staff has now recorded 64 strikeouts in 48 innings in the month of April.
- The win marked Oregon State's 38th all-time versus USC and 15th in Los Angeles.
 
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