As the Oregon State Beavers wait to learn their seed at the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament and whether they will host a Regional, they decided to unveil a new wrinkle for postseason scouting reports.
A bulldog in the rotation.
Ben Ferrer started the opener of Oregon State’s final series of the regular season Thursday night, tossing 5 1/3 promising innings against the Western Carolina Catamounts, as the 10th-ranked Beavers cruised to a 20-7 victory at Goss Stadium.
Making just his third start in two years at Oregon State, the 5-foot-11 right-hander overcame a couple early two-out mistakes to earn his second win of the season and infuse even more attitude and talent into the Beavers’ rotation.
“I think the purpose of today was to get me built up for probably starting games here in the future,” Ferrer said. “It’s something to get used to. I’ve been so wired the last two seasons of coming out of the bullpen and rolling. But I’m always down for anything. Give me the ball and I’m ready to rock.”
After an early hiccup or two, Ferrer rocked plenty Thursday. He allowed a pair of two-out runs in the second and third innings, then overwhelmed the Catamounts with a dominant three-pitch arsenal, finishing the longest outing of his career in dominant fashion.
Ferrer retired the final eight batters he faced — including the last five on strikeouts — as he toyed with Western Carolina hitters at the end of his outing. He recorded his first 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, then struck out the side in the fifth on 10 pitches. When Ferrer was pulled with one out in the sixth after throwing 81 pitches and surpassing his limit, Goss Stadium showered him with a standing ovation.
His final line — five hits, four earned runs, eight strikeouts — offered hope that his bout of preseason mononucleosis is a thing of the past and he’s ready to join the postseason rotation.
“You know what you’re going to get,” OSU coach Mitch Canham said, when asked what he likes about Ferrer as a starter. “You know he’s going to command three pitches … he’s got a really good slider. He’s going to work down. He’s a bulldog. He’s just relentless.”
Canham and pitching coach Rich Dorman entertained the idea of starting Ferrer before the season, but he was diagnosed with mononucleosis in preseason camp and had to miss five weeks, derailing the idea. Ferrer rushed back — probably too soon, he admitted earlier this month — then dealt with a little arm fatigue, and only recently started feeling like himself.
In his last four outings, Ferrer is 2-0 with one save in 14 1/3 innings. He has surrendered four runs on nine hits, while striking out 22.
The emergence has arrived as Sunday starter Jaren Hunter has been sidelined with an undisclosed arm issue, and Canham said Thursday that the Beavers (37-16) would not be rushing Hunter back anytime soon.
The Beavers’ coach stopped short of guaranteeing that Ferrer was a lock to join the rotation. But his mix of moxie, experience and overpowering stuff would be a logical — and perhaps difference-making — addition. And his addition might not be the only change.
The Beavers will start Jacob Kmatz in Game 2 of the series on Friday and Trent Sellers in the finale on Saturday, flipflopping the right-handers normal spots in the rotation. Sellers, who has been the Friday starter all season, has struggled in his last two outings, allowing 15 runs and 14 hits in losses to Utah and UCLA. To help break the funk, Sellers trimmed his long locks earlier in the week in favor of a short haircut.
“I’ve had two bad outings,” Sellers said Thursday. “I had to cut it.”
He’s also working with Dorman on four or five tweaks, including a windup delivery and mixing up his timing to the plate with runner’s on base. As for a shift to throwing on Saturdays, Canham said it would give Sellers “an extra day to work on some things and kind of break up the routine, clear his head a little bit, and then go back to work.”
It’s unclear if the Beavers will keep the rotation adjustments for the postseason, but it appears that all options are on the table.
“We’ve thrown out a handful of different ideas on what it could look like,” Canham said of his rotation. “I think a lot of this depends on next week, where our seed (in the conference tournament) is. Are we playing Tuesday? Are we playing Wednesday? That could have a determination on it. (Ferrer) is just a really good hybrid. He can do anything. He can close games. He can go middle-long relief. He can come in and be a bridge guy and he can start.”
One thing that isn’t in question is the Beavers’ offense, which pounded Western Carolina (21-30) Thursday.
The Beavers finished with 16 hits, including a season-high five home runs, as they set the school record for homers in a season with 68. Garret Forrester and Gavin Turley each hit two home runs and Brady Kasper added one, giving the Beavers 12 long balls in their last four games.
Forrester hit two-run homers in the first and second innings — including a 477-foot bomb into the parking lot in left-center field — and Turley had the first multi-homer game of his career. The freshman outfielder finished 3 for 5 with seven RBIs and has three homers in his last three games, offering hope that he has regained his early-season mojo after an extended slump.
“The ball is moving off his bat again,” Canham said. “So I think he’s in a good place right now.”
Micah McDowell added two doubles, two RBIs and three runs scored, and Mason Guerra added two hits and two RBIs for the Beavers, who scored 20 or more runs for the second time in the last three games.
But while a quick scan of the box score would reveal a solid day for anyone’s fantasy baseball team, it was the pitching — and specifically the addition of Ferrer to the rotation — that means more for the Beavers’ postseason hopes.
“This is what I’ve been training for … this last good run” Ferrer said. “So I feel like I’m good to go.”
— Joe Freeman reported from Corvallis
jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
