Well, that didn’t last long.
One week after dropping out of the top 10 of the college baseball national rankings for the first time this season, the Oregon State Beavers regained their status among the nation’s elite.
The Beavers on Monday surged back into the top 10 in four of the five major polls, rising as high as No. 7 on one ballot, after an impressive series victory over the UC Irvine Anteaters.
Oregon State (22-7) climbed to No. 7 in the Perfect Game Top 25, No. 8 in the D1Baseball Top 25, No. 9 in the USA Today Coaches Poll and No. 10 in the Baseball America Top 25. The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Poll, which ranked the Beavers ninth last week, will be released this afternoon.
The Oregonian/OregonLive uses the D1Baseball poll for its rankings.
The Beavers’ return to the top 10 comes after their most important and clutch series of the season at Goss Stadium in Corvallis.
It started ominously on Friday night, with the worst home defeat in 11 years, a shocking 12-0 beatdown that Oregon State called “embarrassing.” But the Beavers responded with a 4-2 win in Game 2 and a 7-4 victory in Sunday’s rubber match, earning their first series win over a ranked team this season.
The Anteaters (23-7) tumbled one spot, from No. 12 to No. 13, in this week’s rankings.
“I just saw a good focus and no panic on anyone’s part,” OSU coach Mitch Canham said Sunday after his team’s series win. “I know the guys are going to sleep well tonight, just because their intensity was so high and their focus was so high. A lot to be encouraged about right there, but there’s still a lot of games left and we need to handle our business.”
They certainly handled business over the weekend.
Oregon State’s pitching, in particular, was electric, holding one of the nation’s best and hottest lineups to just six runs and 11 hits in the two wins. It was the Anteaters’ worst production in consecutive games this season.
Dax Whitney and AJ Hutcheson fueled the dominance on Saturday, holding UC Irvine to just two runs and four hits. Whitney pitched the first 4 2/3 innings, allowing one earned run and striking out seven, and Hutcheson took over from there to earn his first win of the season. The junior sidewinder limited the Anteaters to just one hit and one unearned run, while striking out six, over 4 1/3 overpowering innings.
It was more of the same on Sunday, when Ethan Kleinschmit and Kellan Oakes spearheaded a series victory. Kleinschmit (5-1) coughed up a pair of homers, but was otherwise sensational on the way to another win, striking out eight and surrendering just four hits over 5 1/3 innings. Oakes, meanwhile, was nearly perfect over the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing just one walk and striking out four to earn his first career save.
Amid all the dominance, there was also a lot of emotion from OSU hurlers, most notably from Hutcheson and Oakes, who celebrated big strikeouts and inning-ending outs with flexes and screams and bursts of passion.
“As the season’s going on, the guys are rallying together and they want to get it done,” Canham said, when asked about the emotion. “They know they can’t do it if they’re passive, and if they’re trying not to mess with that. And so the intent is to go out there and compete. It’s like a constant thing.”
Another constant over the weekend: Gavin Turley. The Beavers’ junior slugger continued his torrid hitting, going 6 for 11 with a homer, two doubles and five RBIs in the series.
Turley exited the weekend with a 14-game hitting streak, the longest of his career and the longest on the team this season. He’s batting.463 (25 for 54) with six homers, four doubles, 17 RBIs and 12 runs scored during the run.
The prolific stretch has helped Turley climb up the Oregon State record books in a pair of significant statistical categories. He now ranks second on the all-time home run list with 42, just three shy of Travis Bazzana’s record, and is tied for seventh on the all-time RBI list with 154. Michael Conforto holds the school record with 179.
“Gavin has been absolutely phenomenal,” Oakes said. “He’s probably the heart of our lineup right now, and he’s absolutely killing it.”
Turley and the Beavers will look to keep their April momentum going this week, when they play the Portland Pilots at Hillsboro Ballpark and a three-game weekend series at Cal State Fullerton. It’s part of a stretch of eight consecutive road games.
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | @freemanjoe.bsky.social | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
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