Oregon State starting pitcher Ben Wetzler and left fielder Michael Conforto extended their terrific seasons Friday night against the Oregon baseball team. The Ducks (31-11, 10-6 Pac-12) fell to the Beavers (29-8, 12-4) 3-1 in the first of the three-game Civil War series at Goss Stadium.
“We were kind of lucky to be in the game,” Oregon head coach George Horton said postgame. “There’s no question they’re difficult to beat in this environment, but I didn’t like the way our guys went around the process of playing baseball.
Wetzler (0.73 season earned-run average) threw 8.1 innings, giving up one earned run, five hits and one walk while striking out seven Ducks. He also earned his 31st career win, an Oregon State record.
“Obviously a great pitcher but not the best we’ve faced,” Oregon first baseman A.J. Balta (0-for-4, two strikeouts) said. “We should’ve capitalized in different situations, but the results are the results.”
Conforto (.414 season batting average) crushed two doubles — one for an RBI — and drew a walk off of Oregon starter Tommy Thorpe. Thorpe did get the best of him in the sixth, though, striking Conforto out to end the inning.
Thorpe labored through six innings, giving up three runs (all earned), seven hits and four walks while striking out six. He also threw 114 pitches.
“Tommy was walking the tightrope a bit,” Horton said.
Oregon State immediately put the pressure on the Ducks. Jeff Hendrix led off the bottom of the first with a single to right, then advanced to third on a wild pitch and a passed ball. Thorpe walked the next two hitters — Andy Peterson and Conforto — to set up Dylan Davis, who drilled a pitch to left. Austin Grebeck was able to track it down, however, resulting in a sacrifice fly to give the Beavers a 1-0 lead.
“I had to go out there and compete, and that’s what I didn’t do against the first few batters,” Thorpe said.
Thorpe settled down after that, retiring the next two batters on pop-ups to second baseman Aaron Payne.
Both Thorpe and Wetzler went through ups and downs the next few innings but they each put up zeroes until the fifth inning.
Hendrix led off the fifth with a single to right and advanced to second on a Peterson bunt. That brought up Conforto, who hit a double to right center in his previous at-bat. He delivered again in the fifth, crushing a Thorpe pitch to left field that forced Grebeck to the wall. Grebeck nearly made an impressive catch but couldn’t reel it in, resulting in an RBI double for Conforto and a 2-0 lead for Oregon State.
“I thought Grebeck was going to get to it,” Thorpe said. “He got there, but it was hit pretty hard.”
The Beavers struck again in the bottom of the sixth. Caleb Hamilton, who compiled four extra base hits in 104 at-bats going into the night, crushed a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall for his first career home run. The Beavers led 3-0 after the solo blast.
Oregon nearly forced a tie or took the lead in the top of the ninth. Kyle Garlick and Nick Catalano hit a single and double, respectively, to lead off the inning, setting up a second-and-third situation for Shaun Chase. Chase struck out on a 3-2 count but Grebeck followed that up with a walk off reliever Zack Reser to load the bases. J.B. Bryant, pinch hitting for Mark Karaviotis, worked a 3-0 count on reliever Scott Shultz but grounded out to second base three pitches later to score Garlick. Payne then flied out to Conforto in left to end the game.
“It shouldn’t have to come down to just the last inning or just Aaron Payne’s at-bat,” Balta said.
Horton echoed Balta, saying the Ducks had several chances to score runs Friday night but failed.
“We’re usually a pretty efficient, executing type of offense and we weren’t tonight,” Horton said. “Against a guy like Wetzler, if you’re not, you see what happens.”
The Ducks and Beavers will be back at it tomorrow night in Corvallis. First pitch is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. with Jeff Gold (2.54 ERA) on the mound for Oregon and Andrew Moore (2.96) for Oregon State.
“We still have a chance to win the series,” Horton said. “Easier said than done but that’s the way we’re going to look at it when our head hits the pillow.”
Follow Victor Flores on Twitter @vflores415