Oregon State baseball rallies for walk-off win vs. Florida State in Corvallis Regional, moving 1 improbable step closer to College World Series

CORVALLIS — After mashing the most important hit of his baseball career and delivering the

Oregon State Beavers

one of their most important victories of the season, a curious thought crossed

AJ Singer’s

mind as he stood on the infield at Goss Stadium.

“Please don’t get hurt,” he said, chuckling, as he recalled the memory of more than 30 burly teammates sprinting toward him in jubilation.

The Beavers’ starting second baseman escaped injury — and stepped into program lore — Friday afternoon in Corvallis, hitting a walk-off single in the bottom of the 10th inning to polish off an improbable 5-4 come-from-behind win over the

Florida State Seminoles

in Game 1 of the

Corvallis Super Regional

.

The dramatic victory delivered the eighth-seeded Beavers (46-13-1) a commanding lead over ninth-seeded Florida State (41-15) in the best-of-three series, leaving them one win away from a trip to the College World Series.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” OSU coach

Mitch Canham

said. “Obviously there’s still a lot of work to be done, and I know these guys are going to focus on what’s happening tomorrow. They’ve got another good arm on the mound and good guys down in the (bullpen) and they’ve got a good offense. But we’ve got a lot of fight in us, too.”

At this point, the fight has almost reached legendary proportions. Four days after Oregon State

completed a memorable comeback

in the regional round to save its season, reeling off four elimination wins over three days, it yet again found itself teetering on life support.

The Beavers faced a 4-1 deficit heading into the bottom of the ninth. They were down to their final out three different times in the inning. And, finally, were down to their final strike.

But a series of clutch at-bats by unlikely heroes staved off defeat.

The first came after

Wilson Weber

opened the ninth with a double to left-center field only to watch

Trent Caraway

and Singer follow with outs.

Bryce Hubbard

, a backup catcher who only had four hits in 19 at-bats on the season, stepped into the batters’ box as a pinch-hitter with the game on the line. He drew a five-pitch walk. That brought pinch-hitter

Dallas Macias

to the plate, and the player who entered the year considered one of the top 100 prospects in the MLB draft only to labor through a season-long slump, promptly ripped a single to right field. And just like that, the bases were loaded for

Jacob Krieg

.

Suddenly, the Beavers had a pulse.

Krieg, who found went through a late-season tailspin so rough he lost his starting job — and then started tinkering with a major swing change — watched the first pitch from FSU reliever Joe Charles skip to the backstop. Weber scored easily to trim the Beavers’ deficit to 4-2, and Hubbard and Macias advanced to second and third.

The Beavers’ pulse morphed into a heartbeat.

Then Krieg, who leads the team in strikeouts (74), swung through back-to-back pitches and stared at a 1-2 count, leaving the Beavers one strike away from defeat. The brawny 6-foot-5 junior, who teammates affectionately call “Bonk,” watched ball two, then hammered a line drive to left, tying the game at 4-4 and sending a sellout crowd of 4,378 into delirium.

“I just took a deep breath and kind of listened to the crowd and realized it’s bigger than myself,” Krieg said of his at-bat. “And I really wanted to do it for the boys. I was trying to battle. I got a slider I could handle and I just put a good swing on it.”

Before the inning, Florida State had flourished amid an entertaining and well-played game, leaning on a few big swings — including a homer from Myles Bailey — and an impressive start by Joey Volini. The junior left-hander finished with eight strikeouts and allowed just one run over 6 2/3 innings, silencing the Beavers’ smoldering-hot lineup. But the Seminoles could only hold it off for so long, and when Krieg tied the game, you could feel the tide turn.

After OSU right-hander Kellan Oakes (4-0) delivered a 1-2-3 frame in the top of the 10th,

Aiva Arquette

opened the bottom half of the inning with a leadoff double.

Gavin Turley

slapped an infield single to shortstop. Florida State intentionally walked Weber to load the bases, sending

the Beavers’ hottest hitter

— Caraway — to the plate. But the Most Outstanding Player of the Corvallis Regional, who hit five homers in five consecutive games, could only manage a swinging bunt in front of the plate, and Arquette was forced out at home.

Singer was in the on-deck circle, and as he sauntered to the plate, he briefly met eyes with Caraway.

“We both pounded our chests,” Singer said. “It was like, we got each other.”

The Seminoles had their infield drawn in, so Singer was looking to drive a ball deep enough to score Turley.

The Beavers’ starting second baseman blasted the first pitch he saw over the head of centerfielder Max Williams, Turley cruised down the line and emphatically stomped on home plate. Then there was chaos. Goss went bonkers. A frenzy of black jerseys sprinted out of the dugout, first toward Turley, and then toward Singer, who waved them on … and briefly worried for his safety.

They swarmed him, hugged him, and doused him with a water bucket. But they didn’t harm him.

“I lost a shoe,” Singer said. “I think I lost a helmet. I lost an elbow guard. I don’t know how they came off me, but they were all on the ground. I wanted to celebrate that moment with them, because it was a team win. It wasn’t just a one-(player) thing. We had guys up and down (deliver), so it was good.”

Good, but not easy. And if you ask the Beavers, that’s about perfect. They had to travel 23,465 miles during the regular season, when they played 35 road and neutral-site games as college baseball’s only independent. They suffered a

stunning upset

in the opening round of the Corvallis Regional. They battled back to win four elimination games. They were down to their final strike Friday.

“Like Mitch said, I don’t think we want it any other way,” Krieg said. “It makes it more fun.”

Added Singer: “We’ve handled some adversity all through the year. I think Mitch gave us the blueprint at the beginning of the season to lead us to success, and we just all bought in.”

And now that adversity sits across the dugout. Florida State was one strike away from a win only to watch Oregon State celebrate near the visiting dugout.

How can a visiting team recover from that?

“It doesn’t get much worse than that,” FSU coach Link Jarrett said. “These guys will regroup.

“As difficult as that feels right now, when it’s 6:06 (p.m. Saturday) and that first pitch is thrown, this shouldn’t have anything to do with it. You have to go play and perform and finish and execute and have an offensive attack and run the bases better and execute pitches better. That’s how we approach it.

“Had the script been reversed in this and we were all excited right now, it still has to be the same approach. And if that helps them be resilient, then great.”

—

Joe Freeman

|

jfreeman@oregonian.com

| 503-294-5183 |

@BlazerFreeman

|

@freemanjoe.bsky.social

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