Oregon State
8-5
Long Beach State
7-7
OSU Splits Action on Day Three of Mary Nutter
February 23, 2020 | Softball
Cathedral City, Calif. – Oregon State (9-5) split action on day three of the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic with an 8-5 win over UC Riverside after falling to Long Beach State, 2-1, in extra innings in Cathedral City, Calif.
Juniors Mariah Mazon and Missy Nunes each hit a home run on the day while, freshman Xiao Gin picked up her first victory in the circle.
Vs. Long Beach State
The Beavers started the day with an extra-inning bought against Long Beach State. The game started as a pitcher's duel as both starters, Mazon for OSU and Coleman for LBSU, allowed one hit between the two of them in the first three innings. Through those three, Mazon struck out four batters.
LBSU was the first team that got a decent shot at scoring when they got runners on the corners with only one out in the top of the fourth. Mazon showed her experience in the circle by striking out a batter looking before getting the next one to pop up to end the inning.
Both teams held strong on defense through the bottom of the fifth with each team only getting one hit. OSU's came in the bottom of the fifth when freshman Grace Messmer hit a hard one to Long Beach State's shortstop.
Long Beach State ended up scoring first in the top of the sixth after a lead-off bunt got a runner on that was able to steal second. Two batters later, LBSU singled into center field that scored the runner on second before OSU got out of the inning.
It looked like OSU would level things in the bottom half of the inning with Maia Rader reaching on an error followed by Gin singling into left field, but neither were able to make it around.
Mazon took matters into her own hands in the seventh with two strikeouts from the circle in the top half of the inning before she led off with a solo homer down the left-field line to force extra innings.
LBSU scored the runner placed on second following the international tiebreaker rule in the top of the eighth. The Beavers came close to tying things again when sophomore Izzy Owen laid down a sac bunt with only one out, but OSU left her stranded, sealing LBSU's 2-1 victory.
Mazon (4-5) pitched 8.0 innings with nine strikeouts. Offensively, OSU finished with four hits coming from Gin (two), Mazon (one) and Messmer (one).
Vs. UC Riverside
Oregon State started the second game of the day with a bang as Gin doubled down the left-field line on the second pitch. Owen hit her second sac bunt of the day to advance Gin to third before Nunes hit her third home run of the season over the left-field fence to give OSU an early 2-0 lead.
UC Riverside came back in the top of the second with an early walk and single putting two runners on with no outs. UCR followed that with a three-run homer before grad-student Trystan Melancon bounced back with back-to-back strikeouts. UC Riverside took a 3-2 lead into the bottom half of the inning.
The Highlanders didn't keep the lead for long as junior Morgan Allen singled to the shortstop followed by Rader drawing a walk. Junior Chance Burden came up with a big sac bunt to put Allen and Rader in scoring position for Gin to hit one into right field to score both Allen and Rader, giving OSU the a 4-3 lead.
UCR loaded the bases in the third and scored as OSU walked in a run with only one out. The Beavers made defensive changes bringing Gin in to pitch for her second time this season. Gin helped OSU come back to life with a strike out against her first batter of the game before sophomore Ashton Phillips made an incredible backwards diving catch to end the inning and prevent any further runs from scoring.
Oregon State matched UCR's run in the bottom half of the inning beginning with Messmer hitting a double into right center. She advanced to third on a passed ball to be in place to score as Allen doubled into left center to give OSU the 5-4 lead.
The Highlanders scored their final run of the game in the sixth off a two-out homer.
The Beavers tacked on three additional runs in the bottom half of the sixth beginning with Owen hitting a single to the second baseman. Nunes executed a sac bunt to advance her and Mazon walked to put two on with one out. Senior Karla Calderon pinch-ran for Mazon as Messmer is hit by a pitch to load the bases with only one out. Owen showed smart-base running while on third to score off a passed ball before Allen reloaded the bases off a walk.
Burden brought in the final two runs with a hard-hit single to UCR's third baseman that allowed Messmer and Calderon to score giving OSU the 8-5 lead.
Mazon replaced Gin in the circle in the top of the seventh to pick up her third save of the season.
Gin pitched 3.2 innings with four strikeouts through 13 batters faced to earn her first victory on the season in the circle. Offensively, the Beavers finished with 10 hits led by Allen going three-for-three.
Up Next:
Oregon State wraps-up action at the Mary Nutter Collegiate Classic tomorrow morning at 11:30 against Cal State Fullerton.
For more information on the Oregon State softball team, visit OSUBeavers.com or follow the team @BeaverSoftball on Twitter and Instagram.
OUR MISSION
Oregon State Athletics strives to Build Excellent Authentic Visionary Student-Athletes (Go BEAVS).
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Coleman, Ashley (2-1)
L: Mazon, Mariah (4-5)
Batting:
2B: Salazar, Emily 1
RBI: McCollum, Sydney 1 ; Gonzalez, Alyssa 1
SH: Olson, Sara 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Seip, Rylie 1 ; Briones, Justine 1
SB: Seip, Rylie 1 ; Gonzalez, Alyssa 1
Batting:
HR: Mazon, Mariah 1
RBI: Mazon, Mariah 1
SH: Owen, Izzy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Mazon, Mariah 1
