CORVALLIS — The Oregon State Beavers tactfully navigated their way through a tricky matchup with one of the best teams on the West Coast, and are now one win away from securing a trip to the NCAA Super Regionals .
Oregon State dominated UC Irvine, 5-3, at Goss Stadium on Saturday to advance to the Corvallis regional final. The Beavers got big performances from Travis Bazzana, Dallas Macias and Jacob Kmatz that helped them get past the Anteaters in front of a home crowd of 4,224.
Here are three takeaways from OSU’s big win and what it means for the Beavers moving forward.
The jewel of Jacob Kmatz
Midway through the sixth inning Saturday, Oregon State head coach Mitch Canham and pitching coach Rich Dorman briefly discussed how exactly they should handle their situation in the bullpen. relievers.
The Beavers held a comfortable 4-1 lead and starter Jacob Kmatz had cruised through the first six innings of the night. At that point, the all-conference right-hander had struck out eight batters and allowed just three hits. But he was sitting on 94 pitches and Oregon State had a well-stocked bullpen.
As he and Dorman considered how to proceed, Canham noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
“I saw (freshman pitcher Eric Segura) look over his head and say, ‘Yeah, he’s good,'” Canham said with a laugh. “So I said, ‘All right, let’s keep rolling.'”
Kmatz proceeded to retire the seventh inning in order. He ended the frame with a takedown of Chase Call, then followed it with a heated punch toward the Oregon State dugout as he left the field.
In total, Kmatz finished the night with a final line of three hits, one earned run, one walk and nine strikeouts in 7.0 innings. He struck out the first five batters he faced.
“You want to set the tone, that’s a big part of the problem,” Kmatz said. “Big win yesterday and you want to come in, you just think about that first pitch and execute that first one. Then you go from there. It’s just energy; you want to provide energy to the guys. You get two strikes and you want to put them away. Sometimes that leads to missed throws, but just attack guys. Good things happen when you do that.
All season, Kmatz has been the Beavers’ Saturday starter while all-conference right-hander Aiden May fills the Friday role. Against the Anteaters, in one of the biggest starts of his career, Kmatz delivered a performance that rose to the occasion.
“He looked like a front-line guy,” UC Irvine coach Ben Orloff said.
Travis Bazzana shines on the big stage
For the second night in a row, an opposing coach was candid about his team’s determination to limit the impact of Oregon State star Travis Bazzana.
During his Friday press conference, Tulane coach Jay Uhlman admitted the Green Wave “wasn’t going to let Travis beat us” after intentionally walking Bazzana twice in a 10-4 loss. A little more than 24 hours later, UC Irvine’s Orloff expressed a similar sentiment.
“He’s probably the best player in college baseball,” Orloff said. “You go into the game saying, ‘You don’t want Bazzana to beat you.'”
Despite a well-thought-out and well-executed game plan from the Anteaters, Bazzana still found a way to change the game with a single swing of the bat.
In the top of the third, OSU’s star second baseman threw a full fastball and demolished it for a towering two-run homer down the right field line in the third inning. The moment brought the Goss Stadium crowd to life and prompted a frenzied celebration from Bazzana as he rounded the goals.
Initially, after the ball left the bat, he thought it was heading into foul territory.
“The surprise probably brought out a little more emotion,” Bazzana said. “Going deeper into the count against a guy who got me my first at-bat, I felt locked in. I felt like I’d missed a pitch earlier – I’d missed his curveball a pitch or two before. I was in that “competition mode” state. He threw a shot to get there, in a playoff atmosphere, a two-point shot and the surprise of coming back. just caused a bit of emotion. But we have to move on the boys got fired up.
“(Kmatz) set the tone with his energy and the way he attacked hitters. So for us to step up our offense and have the same energy as him, this was the time and place to bring it. “
UC Irvine took a more brash approach against Bazzana than Tulane. Anteaters starter Trevor Hansen was able to spot his offspeed pitches early to put Bazzana on an unfavorable count, then systematically attacked him with fastballs to the hands.
Once again, however, a seemingly sound strategy to limit the star leading man’s impact went up in smoke.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of change,” Bazzana said of how he handled the opponents around him in the postseason. “Just continue to be ready to hit pitches over the heart (of home plate). Down, up, in, it’s the same process, the same approach that I’ve had all year. Prepare- you to what the pitcher has and understand what he’s going to do bring what I can damage and continue on that Take the other stuff and compete with two strikes, it hasn’t changed much.
“I think I got hot early in the year. The teams we played in the regular season probably had similar approaches. They just didn’t get a chance to talk about it in the media. Even process; just be prepared to damage the grounds.”
The quiet impact of Elijah Hainline
Elijah Hainline went 3-for-4 with a triple and also made a handful of crucial plays at shortstop for the Beavers on Saturday.
However, according to those on the show, his behind-the-scenes contributions are just as important as those that appear in the score. A third-year junior who spent the first two years of his career at Washington State, Hainline took a big gamble when he chose to transfer to OSU last offseason.
After playing a star role on Pullman during his freshman and sophomore seasons, he suddenly had to find his role on a talent-rich Beavers team. Playing time was far from guaranteed, and Hainline spent much of the season batting in the bottom half of OSU’s lineup.
But lately his contributions have been immense. Hainline’s big night at the plate came as he was coming off 8th in the order.
“He’s making some really tough, athletic plays right now. He’s making them look easy,” Bazzana said. “It’s pretty special. He’s making plays for pitchers right now. I know Kmatz and all the pitchers like the way he’s playing shortstop right now. For him to go out and get three shots, he walks around with a lot of confidence.”
What’s Next for Oregon State
The Beavers will play in the Corvallis regional final at 6 p.m. Sunday. There, they will face the winner of a noon game between UC Irvine and Tulane.
The Oregon State game will be broadcast on ESPN+. All other television details will be announced on Sunday.
Jarrid Denney covers high school sports and Oregon State for the Statesman Journal. He can be contacted at JDenney@salem.gannett.com or on X @jarrid_denney