Justin Kies
Staff Writer
Monday’s, June 18, College World Series afternoon elimination game that featured a Pac-12 conference matchup in the Oregon State Beavers and Washington Huskies was brutally long but well worth the wait.
The Washington Huskies played host to the Beavers in Omaha, Nebraska, and were the first to put runs on the board in the bottom of the third after two and a half scoreless innings. Washington’s first baseman, Johnathon Schiffer got the productive inning started hitting a single with one out. The Huskies’ lineup continued to catch fire as left fielder Mason Cerrillo hit another single to give Washington two runners on and only the one out.
A strikeout followed Cerrillo’s hit for out number two but Nick Kahle hit a two-run double in the gap and would later score to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead entering the fourth inning. Following the first productive inning of the game, Washington looked better than ever on defense facing three Oregon State batters and getting three quick outs. Unfortunately, the Huskies couldn’t tack on more runs in the bottom of the fourth and Oregon State came back up to the plate.
The Beavers, who have the third best batting average in the nation as a team, refused to go down quietly. In the top of the fifth with two outs, they strung together a couple of base hits and a double to get a couple runs on the board and with the help of a pass ball took a 4-3 lead.
Washington would quickly answer however with some timely hits of their own, making the score 5-4 in favor of the Huskies at the end of the fifth inning. The Huskies managed to get two quick outs in the top of the sixth before the weather began to turn. Lightning and rain delayed the intense elimination game by a total of four hours and 31 minutes.
When play resumed at approximately 7:45 P.M., Oregon State was still up to bat with the bases loaded and two outs. More timely hitting from the Beaver offense allowed them to get one run in, evening the score at 5-5, before the Huskies came up to bat in the bottom of the sixth.
After the weather delay the game was Oregon State’s for the taking. In the last four innings Washington only managed to get two runners on base and scored zero runs. The Beaver offense wouldn’t look back as two home-runs and some streaky team hitting granted Oregon State a comfortable nine run lead entering the last inning. A three-run shot from Kyle Nobach in the seventh and a solo shot from Tyler Malone in the eighth gave Oregon State all the momentum they needed to secure the win.
“Long day. I thought our guys came out really prepared after the rain delay,” said Pat Casey, Oregon State’s head coach, “We were kind of scuffling out of the chute. Got a big hit out of Tyler Malone. But really appreciate the way they hung with it and got themselves a win.”
Washington’s first-ever CWS appearance didn’t turn out how they planned but a trip to Omaha proves this program is on the come-up.
“This is a tough way to end your season. And we talked about that after the game that — I don’t want to talk about tonight’s game, I want to talk about how far you guys have come,” said Huskies’ head coach Lindsay Meggs after the game.
Washington was eliminated from the 2018 College World Series after losing its’ first and only two games in the tournament. Still one loss away from elimination themselves, Oregon State will face the loser of North Carolina and Mississippi State on Wednesday night, June 20th, unless the weather decides otherwise.
