As Garret Forrester strolled to the Oregon State clubhouse Saturday night, he paused along the left field line and whipped out a gold DeMarini Voodoo One.
“I want a bat that doesn’t break,” the Beavers’ first baseman said, feigning exasperation, as he popped off the knob to reveal a busted handle. “First at-bat. I hit that line shot — hit it on the barrel, too — and it felt really good. And then my hands were ringing.”
The liner rocketed to shortstop and resulted in an inning-ending double play, sabotaging a chance for the Beavers to score an early run. And things only got worse from there.
Caden Kaelber baffled the No. 25 Beavers for seven innings and old friend Greg Fuchs hit a go-ahead two-run home run as the Washington State Cougars beat OSU 6-3 in an emotional matchup filled with antics and gamesmanship at Goss Stadium.
Washington State’s win evened the three-game series at 1-1, setting up a Sunday afternoon rubber match that starts at 1:05 p.m. If Saturday is any indication, the finale could be heated and entertaining.
The game featured multiple taunting warnings, a mound check for an illegal substance, a near ejection and plenty of chatter among the players.
The bad blood seemed to start at the end of the fourth inning, when Cougars third baseman Cam Magee started a beautiful double play. He dove to his right to snare a hard hit ball from catcher Tanner Smith, then tossed a bullet to second base, instigating a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play. Afterward, as he retreated to the visiting dugout, Magee shouted a barrage of choice words at the Oregon State dugout.
The Beavers refused to divulge the specifics of what Magee said, but it was unsavory enough that umpires met with Cougars coach Brian Green in between innings and issued a taunting warning.
Magee happened to bat leadoff the next inning, hitting a harmless grounder up the middle that OSU right-hander Jacob Kmatz snared. As Kmatz raced toward first base to record the put-out, he stared at Magee multiple times, exaggerating the gazes before he stepped on the bag.
The move prompted Green to visit umpires to object, and play was stopped a few minutes as officials held lengthy chats with coaches from both teams.
“I thought it was OK because he didn’t say anything,” Forrester said of Kmatz. “He just was looking at him as he was coming in tagging the bag. I thought that was OK. But in the umpire’s perspective, that is considered taunting. I thought for a second Kmatz was going to get throw out for the game.”
Things grew even more testy a half-inning later, as Kaelber was readying to open the bottom of the fifth, when Oregon State coaches asked umpires to check his hat for an illegal substance.
“He kept going to it quite a few times,” OSU coach Mitch Canham said. “So just taking a peek and seeing if he had something.”
He did not, but Kaelber’s first pitch sailed high and wide and hammered into the backstop. It was just about the only errant throw he had all day.
Kaelber (3-0) kept the Beavers guessing with a surplus of sinkers and sliders, allowing just two runs on five hits, while striking out eight. Outside of the third inning, when the 6-foot-7 right-hander gave up back-to-back singles and a two-out, two-run double to Kyle Dernedde, Kaelber was virtually untouchable. He allowed just four baserunners over the final five innings and recorded three 1-2-3 innings, including the seventh, when he needed just five pitches to retire the side.
“He was working the edges and had a lot of sink to his ball,” Canham said. “I don’t think we made adjustments early enough … and as we did later on, it was just too little, too late.”
As Kaelber cruised, Kmatz fizzled. The Beavers’ No. 2 starter lasted just five innings, giving up four runs, five hits and three walks/hit batters. The biggest blow came in the fourth, when Fuchs — who transferred from Oregon State to Washington State last summer — crushed a 1-0 pitch well beyond the bleachers in right-center field for his first homer of the season.
Sam Brown had an RBI double in the third inning and Jonah Advincula went 3 for 6 with two runs scored for the Cougars (12-2, 1-1 Pac-12), but it was Fuchs’ blast and Kaelber’s stuff that delivered the Beavers (11-3, 1-1) their first conference loss of the season.
And now Sunday’s finale will decide the series, the first in conference play this season. That, combined with Saturday’s sideshow antics, should make for a fun afternoon at the ballpark.
“It just fires us up, especially in our yard,” Forrester said of Magee’s chatter. “I mean, to come into our place and act like that … we will use that to our advantage and go into tomorrow and kick some ass.”
— Joe Freeman reported from Corvallis
jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories
