‘We love this’: After Oregon State baseball falls to Coastal Carolina in World Series, it enters comfort zone

OMAHA, Neb. — As

AJ Singer

strolled out of Charles Schwab Field toward the

Oregon State

baseball team bus late Sunday night, he wore the look of a man who had been bludgeoned.

He sported a disheveled, dirt-stained white uniform. He had eye black smeared all over his cheeks. He labored as he toted a gigantic bag full of baseball gear.

But his look betrayed his thoughts.

Yes, the Beavers had just suffered their first defeat at the

Men’s College World Series

, falling 6-2 to the seemingly invincible

Coastal Carolina Chanticleers

in the second round of the eight-team tournament in Omaha, Nebraska. Sure, Singer committed a costly — and very rare — error during the defeat. And, yes, Oregon State’s storybook season is now on the brink, sitting one loss away from an early ending.

But, apparently, Oregon State has only now entered its comfort zone.

“I think you’ve learned this by now,” Singer said, smiling. “We love this. We love elimination games. This is nothing new to us and we’re ready for what’s to come.”

The team that survived

four elimination games

in the regional round and

one more in the super regional round

now faces its most daunting task yet.

While Coastal Carolina (55-11) — which has won 25 games in a row — earned two days off to rest its pitching staff and prepare for its next game in the winners’ bracket, the Beavers will have just one day to regroup before they face the first of three possible elimination games. Oregon State plays the Louisville Cardinals Tuesday at 11 a.m. in a rematch of its

opening-round MCWS matchup

.

“We got a good group and we’re here for a reason,” Oregon State pitching coach

Rich Dorman

said. “And so I’m excited to watch our response … this isn’t the end of this team.”

But the end will come soon if the Beavers deliver another uncharacteristically sloppy performance like Sunday night’s, which featured a litany of mistakes that started almost immediately, with

Ethan Kleinschmit’s

third pitch.

That pitch was smacked to shortstop by Coastal Carolina leadoff hitter Caden Bodine, seemingly for an easy first out. Instead,

Aiva Arquette

airmailed his throw to first base for an error. After committing just four errors all season before Omaha, the slick-fielding OSU shortstop has coughed up two in two World Series games.

And Sunday’s blunder set an ominous tone for a wild and wacky first inning that proved costly for the Beavers (48-15-1).

Two pitches later, Kleinschmit was called for a balk. Then Blake Barthol drew a one-out walk and Walker Mitchell was hit by a pitch, loading the bases. Kleinschmit was given a temporary reprieve when, after he plunked Blagen Pado, home plate umpire Scott Letendre ruled that Pado leaned into the pitch intentionally. After review, the call was upheld.

But the good vibes didn’t linger.

Colby Thorndyke followed with a bases-clearing double, demolishing a 1-1 pitch into the right-center field gap, staking the Chanticleers an early 3-0 lead.

Two innings later, the Beavers’ defense — which entered the MCWS with the seventh-best fielding percentage (.982) in college baseball — floundered again.

After Dean Mihos ripped a leadoff single and Well Sykes drew a one-out walk, the Chanticleers were threatening again with their best hitter — Bodine — stepping to the plate. The Buster Posey Award finalist got down 1-2, then slapped a grounder to second at Singer, setting up a potential 4-6-3 double play. But the sure-handed second baseman who committed just one error over his first 63 games, did the unthinkable, allowing the ball to scoot between his legs into the outfield.

Mihos raced home and Sykes cruised into third base. Four pitches later, Kleinschmit skipped a wild pitch to the backstop, Sykes scored and, just like that, Coastal Carolina led 5-1.

The Beavers, one of the most fundamentally sound teams in college baseball, had fumbled and bumbled their way to a four-run deficit thanks to a barrage of balks, walks, wild pitches and errors. And the fact that Arquette and Singer — two of the most dependable and defensively-gifted up-the-middle players in the nation — were the culprits was, well, surprising.

“It went right through the wickets,” Singer said of his error. “There’s no other way around it. I think me and Aiva both learned that we’re human and make errors.”

Across the diamond, the gritty Chanticleers had no such problem, as right-hander Jacob Morrison mowed through the Beavers’ lineup with striking precision. The 6-foot-8 junior tossed 7 2/3 marvelous innings, during which he allowed just one run on five hits and recorded seven strikeouts, improving to 12-0 on the season.

The Beavers put multiple good swings on pitches, barreling balls deep into the outfield, but they were knocked down by a stiff wind and fell harmlessly into Chanticleers gloves.

Easton Talt

muscled a line drive solo homer to right-center field off Morrison, but he was otherwise untouchable, retiring 16 Beavers in a row during one dominant stretch from the third through the eighth innings.

“I envisioned dominance,” Morrison said. And his visions became reality.

That was not the case for Kleinschmit (8-4), who labored through 4 2/3 innings without his best stuff. It didn’t help that his defense betrayed him, but the sophomore left-hander also coughed up three hits and three walks, hit two batters, and generally looked out of sorts, saying afterward that he “didn’t feel completely in sync.”

“Obviously, I didn’t have my A-game today,” Kleinschmit said. “It sucks for sure. But (we’ve) just got to reset and compete.”

One of the few good aspects of Kleinschmit’s outing is that he fought through the first inning — when Oregon State’s bullpen first started stirring — and battled all the way until the fifth, saving a few OSU arms. For a team that will have to win three elimination games over three days, it was desperately needed.

“The kid’s a competitor,” Dorman said. “He’s a winner. Obviously, he’s going to play this game for a long time. You learn from stuff like this — you always learn from adversity — and I’m really confident in Ethan. He’s going to be way better for this moving forward.”

As for the Beavers’ path forward in Omaha, well, it won’t be easy. They will need to defeat Louisville on Tuesday and then topple Coastal Carolina twice on Wednesday and Thursday to reach the championship series. It’s not the first time the program has faced such a dire situation — the Beavers won four elimination games on their way to the 2018 national championship.

But, more importantly for this Oregon State team, it’s hardly the Beavers’ first taste of elimination bedlam this season.

Like Singer said as he strolled toward the team bus late Sunday night, the Beavers have a love affair with adversity.

“It’s baseball,” OSU coach

Mitch Canham

said. “If you’re scared of a little bit of an obstacle in front of you, then sport isn’t for you and most of life isn’t for you because it just keeps coming. So take it with grace and go out there and fight.”

—

Joe Freeman

|

jfreeman@oregonian.com

| 503-294-5183 |

@BlazerFreeman

|

@freemanjoe.bsky.social

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