It will go down as a stunning defeat and, in a worst-case scenario, serve as the moment that sabotaged the Oregon State Beavers’ chances of hosting a regional in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.
But inside the home clubhouse at Goss Stadium, Friday’s sloppy, out-of-nowhere loss to the lowly Utah Utes will be remembered for something different altogether.
“We still have big aspirations and I think that was just a humble reminder to get us going again,” OSU reliever Ben Ferrer said. “We were rolling and you’d rather not do it by losing a game, but it kind of set us back to reality, helped us realize, ‘Oh, we haven’t won anything yet, so let’s just keep it up and finish the season strong and get where we want to be.’”
The 15th-ranked Beavers rebounded from letdown in workmanlike fashion on Saturday, beating the Utes 6-5 in the second game of a three-game series to set up a Sunday rubber match in Corvallis.
After an ominous start — Karson Bodily belted a three-run homer in the top of the first inning to give Utah an early lead — the Beavers flexed their dominance, using two big swings and an electric performance by Ferrer to respond to the series-opening flop. Oregon State (32-14, 15-11 Pac-12) won for the 14th time in the last 17 games and temporarily moved into a tie for third place in the Pac-12 with the Oregon Ducks, who play at USC Saturday night.
Mason Guerra hit a three-run home run — his seventh in the last nine games — Micah McDowell hit a three-run double and Travis Bazzana set a single-season school record with his 30th stolen base to highlight an OSU offense that mashed 10 hits and put 18 runners on base.
But it was Ferrer’s dominance that owned the day, as the bulldog reliever had perhaps his most impressive performance of the season.
Ferrer faced a firestorm the moment he entered the game Saturday, taking over for starter Jacob Kmatz with a 6-4 lead in the sixth, after the Utes ((19-25-1, 8-17-1)) put runners on the corners with no outs. Eight pitches later, Ferrer had extinguished the fire. Bodily grounded into a fielder’s choice, was thrown out trying to steal second base, and Cameron Gurney struck out on four pitches, as the Ferrer preserved the lead.
And the 5-foot-11 right-hander was only getting started. He went to strike out six of the next seven batters he faced on the way to a masterful four-inning save. Ferrer finished with a season-high seven strikeouts and did not allow a hit or walk in four innings, throwing 33 of his 46 pitches for strikes.
After being sidelined for five weeks with mononucleosis at the beginning of the season — and rushing back without facing live hitters — it was Ferrer’s longest and most overpowering outing of 2023. His slider, so lethal last season, was especially nasty.
“I guess you could say I was feeling pretty good,” Ferrer said, smirking. “Everything was working, but my slider … I could do pretty much anything I wanted to with it. Make it dive. Make it sweep. Backdoor it. So, yeah, it’s nice to have that back out there.”
In hindsight, Ferrer likely rushed back a bit too soon from his bout of mono, enduring a mild case of arm fatigue along the way. He essentially had to work himself into midseason form during games, and he encountered some obvious growing pains because of it — most notably during forgettable back-to-back outings at Stanford in March, when Ferrer allowed six hits and five runs over 1 2/3 innings and suffered his only defeat of the season.
His slider lacked its bite. His command wasn’t as sharp. His bulldog demeanor wasn’t as menacing.
“I was definitely champing at the bit to get back out there,” he said. “So you could say I rushed it a little bit. But, obviously, the competitor in me wanted to help the team as soon as possible. I hated watching from the sidelines, so it was definitely an adjustment getting back out there. It took a little bit longer to get ready for the season and I didn’t have that wipeout slider that I had last year. But these past few weeks, I’m feeling really good and ready to take it home for the homestretch.”
Ferrer is perhaps the most important component of the Beavers’ exceptional bullpen — if not the entire pitching staff — and his versatility and ability to take over a game set the tone for the unit. He’s both a respected leader and a well-liked figure in the clubhouse. If the Beavers have any chance of making noise this postseason, they will need the menace out of the bullpen who threw Saturday instead of the up-and-down right-hander from earlier in the season.
“It amplifies everything that we do when he throws like that,” OSU coach Mitch Canham said. “It’s noticeably different how much everyone is even more engaged when Benny’s on. Guys love him. They respect him. They look up to him. He’s like a father-figure to a lot of them. So when he goes to work, they feed off his example. When he says something, they’re going to do it. There’s a lot we all can learn from how he goes out and competes.”
Ferrer had a hitless outing for the second consecutive game — he tossed a perfect ninth in a win over the rival Ducks on Tuesday — and his ERA dipped to 3.49, falling below 4.00 for the first time in nearly a month.
So while Friday might be remembered for its damage to the Beavers’ chase to host a regional, Saturday could be remembered as the moment the bite returned to their bullpen bulldog, which could have a more important impact on the final month of the season.
“I had to lock the doors and shut my phone off so I wouldn’t have to hear him … ‘I’m ready. I’m ready. I’m ready,’” Canham said, referring to the five weeks Ferrer was sidelined. “Well, he sure looked ready today.”
— 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.
