SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – The words escaped him.
As Jacob Melton lay on the pitch at Scottsdale Stadium on Saturday night, with dirt stains on the front of his shirt off and Gatorade stains on his back, he tried to sum up the madness and improbability of the Oregon State Beavers Day. But I just couldn’t find the right words.
“I don’t think there are words for that day,” Melton said. “That was the craziest baseball day I think I’ve ever seen.”
It included two games, two wins, nine hours and 34 minutes of baseball, 62 runs, 79 hits, 527 pitches, a colossal collapse and too many laps and laps to count.
But in the end, the Beavers persevered, defeating the UCLA Bruins 8-7 in the second game of a memorable double-header to advance to the championship game of the inaugural Pac-12 baseball tournament. They will play at Stanford on Sunday at 7 p.m.
But whatever happens in the debut title game will surely not be compared to the chaos of Saturday, which left unbelievers on longtime radio and television stations, tournament officials and baseball fans, saying no. it looked like nothing they had seen before.
“All in all, it’s a very wild day, at least,” said OSU coach Mitch Canham, adding, “I haven’t seen anything like it.”
It started Saturday at 10 a.m. when Oregon State team buses left the team’s hotel for Scottsdale Stadium. And it didn’t end until 12:01 a.m. Sunday morning, when the last of the OSU players slowly came out through the giant, hidden doors along the center fence. In between, there was endless drama.
Second-seeded Beavers (44-14) came in on Saturday needing a win to close out a fixture with Stanford, the No. 1 seed in Sunday night’s championship game, while the Bruins, sixth-seeded ( 38-21) needed a couple of wins.
UCLA made it clear from the start that it was not going to roll, chasing OSU starter Jake Pfennigs in the first inning to build a 7-2 lead after two. And the fireworks were just beginning.
With Garret Forrester scoring homers on the opposing field, Gavin Logan scoring double and Justin Boyd spraying the ball across the field, the Beavers’ offense exploded, scoring four runs in the third … then three in the fourth … then five races. in the fifth … then three more races in the sixth. The state of Oregon led 17-10 and seemed to be on track for the title game. In the ninth, the lead had increased to 21-12 and the last three outings seemed like a formality.
But a trio of Oregon relievers coughed up the lead in a mind-boggling way as DJ Carpenter, Victor Quinn and nearest Ryan Brown performed nine runs, four hits, three balls and a batter. . Surprisingly, the Bruins came back all the way, tying the game 21-21 when Jack Holman took home Kenny Oyama with a round of an out on the first.
The inside of the Beavers field was playing the game and Forrester put the floor clean and went home with the ball. But his throw deflected to the left to the side of first base and he jumped onto the plate, causing Logan to slam into the ball, grab it, and then pair it with a tag next to the third base.
Oyama not only won the pitch, but Logan injured his hip in the play and had to leave the game.
As the crisis unfolded during the entrance, Logan crouched behind the main course in disbelief.
“In the ninth, I said, ‘There’s no way. There is no way this is happening right now. There’s no way they’re going all the way back, “Logan said.” In fact, I looked at the scoreboard once and said, ‘Oh my God. They’ve got eight runs already. I was shocked.’
The Beavers responded to the sinking by scoring a run in the top 10, when Boyd hit a single that scored a run in the middle. Still, they were leading 22-21.
But the Bruins had too much momentum. Brown, who appeared to be closed in the middle of the season, allowed consecutive hits, intentionally walked the loaded bases and then rejected the tie. A later throw, he ceded a three-run homer to Tommy Beres, and UCLA won a stunning, 25-22, celebrating in a crowd at home.
The game lasted five hours and 44 minutes and was the dream of a fantasy baseball coach. The teams combined for 47 runs, 53 hits, 20 walks and 79 base runs. The state of Oregon finished with a school record of 28 hits and a season high of 22, as Boyd finished with a school record of six hits and four runs, Forrester hit two homers and recorded six RBIs. and Logan produced five hits and five drives.
Sixteen different pitchers appeared, including nine from the Beavers, and 26 different players had at least one bat.
Then, after the emotional marathon, the teams had to do it all over again.
It was relatively quiet at the Beavers clubhouse, they said, as players processed their collapse and tried to regroup. They changed shelters, put on new uniforms and, Canham said, did their best to “clear up” an ending in which “we didn’t do, we didn’t do anything right.”
“Not much was said,” Melton said. “I think the boys were a little delusional after that six-hour game. But we used it as a mental recovery and we tried to get ready to go back and play the second game.”
Several players struggled with cramps and tense muscles due to Arizona’s three-digit hydration and heat, and some were left out of the second game or left early. Wade Meckler was not a starter for the first time in the entire season and Boyd was retired after the first inning, forcing Canham to play against freshman second baseman Travis Bazzana in midfield for the first time in his career. career. Logan missed the game due to a hip injury.
Still, the Beavers hit first, scoring four runs in the first and one more in the second to take a 5-0 lead. But UCLA bounced back, again, and in the seventh, when Holman started a two-run single in the center with two outs, the Bruins led a Beavers team harassed 7-6.
But this time, the comeback was temporary.
Kyle Dernedde opened the bottom of the ninth with a single inside the field, throwing his head to beat the throw, and later Bazzana made a double down the left field line to put the runners in second and third with a out. Forrester followed with a pop-up at second base, which seemed to end the momentum. But UCLA fielders Daylen Reyes and Jake Palmer hit the field with confusion and the ball hit the ground, sending Dernedde home to tie the game at 7-7.
A batter later, Melton pulled off a 2-2 slider in the left field to lead Bazzana and end the game. This time, it was the state of Oregon celebrating an 8-7 victory as the Beavers players ran out of the dugout and stormed Melton near second base.
Later, while doing a post-game interview on the Pac-12 networks, Bazzana and Greg Fuchs dragged Melton with a bucket of Gatorade.
After nearly 10 hours of baseball, a monumental collapse and a couple of hits, the Beavers had survived to play the first championship game of the Pac-12 tournament.
“It takes a little heart to come back and play a game like this after a first game loss,” Melton said. “I think it’s a testament to who we are as a team.”
– Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian / OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and headlines