Beavers Defeat Titans in Mary Nutter Finale

Sunday, February 23

Cathedral City, CA

11:30 AM

Oregon State

10-5

Cal State Fullerton

7-5

Cal State Fullerton

Oregon State

February 23, 2020 | Softball

Box Score

By: Athletic Communications

Cathedral City, Calif. – Oregon State softball (10-5) came out on top over Cal State Fullerton, 2-0, led offensively by Fallon Molnar and Missy Nunes and defensively by Mariah Mazon picking up her third shutout of the season.

Mazon started things defensively striking out the first batter of the game swinging.

In the bottom half of the inning, freshman Xiao Gin led off with a hard-hit single to the second baseman. Sophomore Izzy Owen reached on a fielder's choice as Gin was out. Nunes came up big to put the Beavers on the board with a RBI double into left field that brought Owen around from first place. OSU took a 1-0 lead after the first.

Mazon and the Oregon State defense continued to make plays to keep Cal State Fullerton off the board with Mazon picking up five strikeouts over the course of the second to fourth innings and the defense making smart decisions to eliminate any runners that got on.

In the top of the fifth, the Titans got a runner on with two outs with potential to score. Nunes made the throw from behind-the-plate to freshman Grace Messmer at second to catch the runner stealing and get OSU out of the inning.

In the bottom half of the inning, senior Fallon Molnar smoked a solo home run over the center-field fence with one out to double the Beaver's lead to 2-0.

It looked like Cal State Fullerton was going to gain some momentum in the top of the sixth after the inning started with back-to-back walks with no outs, but Mazon showed her experience with a strikeout for the first out of the inning. The Beaver outfielders came up big for OSU with sophomore Ashton Phillips grabbing the next batters fly ball in center and making a quick throw to get it into the infield to keep the runners on first and second. With two outs, Mazon threw a pitch that CSF's batter popped up to junior outfielder Chance Burden for the final out.

Mazon's command remained superior in the top of the seventh that began with back-to-back strikeouts of batters looking. It ended with her fielding a grounder hit up the middle and making an easy throw over to first giving OSU the 2-0 victory.

Mazon pitched 7.0 innings with nine strikeouts and only allowed two hits to improve to 5-5 on the season. Over the course of the weekend at the Mary Nutter, Mazon pitched 31.2 innings through five appearances and limited batters to a .170 batting average while holding a .88 ERA. On the season, the junior has a 1.16 ERA.

Up Next:

Oregon State is back in action next Thursday in Honolulu, Hawaii as the Beavers open the Malihini Kipa Aloha Tournament against Hawaii, Nevada and Seattle U.

For more information on the Oregon State softball team, visit OSUBeavers.com or follow the team @BeaverSoftball on Twitter and Instagram.

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