Baseball splits two games at Oregon State

The USC baseball team split the first two games of their weekend series against the Oregon State Beavers, winning handily on Friday night but losing in walk-off fashion on Saturday afternoon.

The Trojans (30-11, 11-6 Pac-12) benefitted from great starts in each game, as both Tyler Gilbert and Kyle Twomey turned in seven complete innings and allowed three runs or less in their respective starts.

On Friday, USC backed Gilbert with an offensive outburst, defeating the Beavers 11-3 after falling behind to an early 1-0 deficit. After Oregon State got on the board with a solo home run in the bottom of the third, the Trojans responded quickly, putting up two runs in the top of the fourth with RBI singles from Timmy Robinson and Blake Lacey.

They added two more in the top of the fifth against Beavers ace Andrew Moore, who entered the game with a sparkling 0.68 ERA in conference play. He proved to be only human against USC, however, as the Trojans tagged him with six runs on nine hits through only 6.1 innings of work.

After chasing Moore from the game in the seventh, USC tacked on seven more runs in the seventh and eighth innings to bust the game wide open. Gilbert lasted until the bottom of the eighth for the Trojans, but the Beavers rallied for two runs in the inning to end his night.

USC’s 11 runs on 13 hits were more than enough to give Gilbert and the Trojans the win in the first game of the series. This proved crucial on Saturday, as the Beavers showed exactly why it is so hard to play on their home field.

In the second game of the series, the Trojans fell into an early hole, as starter Kyle Twomey yielded runs in the first and third innings. After the shaky start, Twomey settled in nicely, turning in seven innings of two-run ball on only four hits.

The Trojans came back in the top of the sixth on four straight singles, including RBIs from Timmy Robinson and Dante Flores, but they were unable to break the tie, even with base runners in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.

Relief pitcher Marc Huberman held the Beavers in check in the eighth inning of the 2-2 game, but Oregon State proved too much for the Trojan bullpen in the bottom of the ninth. After Huberman allowed a leadoff walk and a sacrafice bunt to move the runner to second, reliever Kyle Davis came in to try to send the game to extra innings.

He was unable to do so, however, as Billy King singled through the right side to plate the winning run in walk-off fashion for the hometown Beavers, winning 3-2.

This week, Trojans will host Cal State Fullerton at Dedeaux Field on Tuesday night, then travel to Salt Lake City for a three-game set this weekend against the University of Utah.