After a season that featured an abundance of ups and downs, things came to an end for the Oregon State baseball team in the Gainesville Regional on June 5.
Oregon State advanced to the 64-team NCAA tournament for the fifth time in six years by way of finishing the regular season on an impressive note, winning 10 of their final 15. That momentum carried into their opening regional contest, a 6-4 Oregon State win over the region’s No. 2 seed, Florida Atlantic, that saw the Oregon State bats explode early and a pitching staff that held on late.
Freshman Tyler Smith opened the scoring with a two-run home run in the second, then Oregon State tacked on four more in the fourth to give them a six run cushion.
From that point on, Oregon State entered into “hold on” mode. Florida Atlantic scored two in the sixth to cut the deficit to four, then added two more in the eighth to make things even closer. But, after sophomore Ryan Gorton surrendered the eighth inning two-run home run that made it 6-4, junior Tyler Waldron entered the game and picked up his third save of the season. He allowed just one base runner on his way to recording the final five outs, and Oregon State escaped round one with 6-4 victory that matched Oregon State up with top-seed Florida in round two of the four-team, double elimination tournament.
Florida, the nation’s No. 3 overall seed, received little resistance in their opening round game, defeating Bethune-Cookman 7-3. Oregon State proved to be even less of a challenge to the Gators the following day.
OSU starter Sam Gaviglio came one pitch away from potentially changing the whole complexion of the game.
The Gators, who led 1-0 after a solo home run in the first inning, had runners on second and third with two outs in the third. Gaviglio had just produced a bases loaded, line-out double play that put him in position to escape the inning unscathed, but he came up one out short. The next six Florida hitters reached base – one walk, one single, one double, two triples, and one two-run, back-breaking home run – to extend their lead to 8-0 and force Gaviglio out of the game. The eight run deficit was too much for the Pac-10’s worst offense to overcome.
OSU scored one in the fourth and one in the fifth, while Florida scored one more in the fifth and a final run in the ninth for the eventual 10-2 victory.
The loss sent Oregon State to the losers bracket, where they met up with Florida Atlantic a second time. This time, it was for a chance to meet Florida in the regional finale (the OSU-FAU winner would have to beat Florida twice). The loser of the OSU-FAU game would see their 2010 campaign come to a close.
As was the case in the Florida game, it was Oregon State’s inability to get out of an early inning that eventually spelled doom. Florida Atlantic cruised to an 11-7 victory to end the Beaver’s season, but the game wasn’t even as close as the score indicated. FAU chased Oregon State starter Tyler Waldron after just 2/3 of an inning by sending 11 men to the plate and scoring six runs in the top of the first. They added two more in the second to extend their lead to 8-0, another insurmountable deficit for coach Pat Casey’s offensively-challenged squad. Oregon State scored four in the third to close the gap to four, but Florida Atlantic responded with three more in the seventh to put the game out of reach. It was only the second time all season that the Beavers pitching staff allowed double-digit runs in back-to-back games.
Oregon State’s only two seniors, outfielders Adalberto Santos and Rob Folsom, finished their Beaver careers on a positive note, from an individual standpoint, combining to go 4-9 with 3 RBIs in the loss.
Florida went on to defeat FAU later that night to advance to the Super Regionals, where they ousted the University of Miami in a best-of-three series. In the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, the Gators dropped their first two contests to become the first eliminated out of the eight participating teams.