In the aftermath of a sloppy and disappointing opening day defeat, Mitch Canham told the Oregon State baseball team it could respond in two drastically different ways.
Get angry or get sad.
And option B would include an early plane ride back to Corvallis.
“We were starting to feel sad (Friday),” the Beavers’ coach said. “Sad lingers. It’s something that changes your body language. But being mad, you have the opportunity to retaliate, come back and fix what’s happening. It’s about controlling your aggression. So I told all the guys, ‘Anyone who is sad and down in the dumps, if that’s the way you’re feeling, then let me know. We can get a flight for you. But if you’re upset, if you’re mad, and you’re ready to bring back revenge and bring out a better version of yourself, well, we can learn to control that and go out and compete today.’”
The Beavers chose anger Saturday afternoon and it led to their first victory of the season, 8-7, over the Minnesota Golden Gophers at the Sanderson Ford Classic in Surprise, Arizona.
It was far from a perfect win for the Beavers — they committed two more errors, allowed three more unearned runs, were out-hit 13-5 and nearly squandered an 8-2 lead — but it helped eased the sting of Saturday’s letdown.
“We wanted to come out and play Beaver Baseball today,” shortstop Kyle Dernedde said. “We had a few mistakes, had a little slip in the seventh inning, but I think for the most part we were pretty resilient today. And I think the way we came out shows a lot about our club.”
Canham said he knew his players had chosen anger rather than sadness early Saturday, well before the first pitch against Minnesota, when they were going through their pregame stretching. Canham said he felt it in their energy, noticed that they looked him in the eye when they chatted, saw purpose in their preparation.
And, sure enough, Oregon State (1-1) was sharp early. After the Golden Gophers (0-2) opened with a pair of soft singles, catcher Tanner Smith picked off Brett Bateman at second base, starter Jacob Kmatz fanned Brady Counsell with a 90 mph fastball and Smith threw out Boston Merlia trying to steal second base.
Then, a half-inning later, the Beavers took an early lead by manufacturing the first run of the game. Leadoff hitter Brady Kasper worked a full-count walk, moved to second on a wild pitch, and moved to third on a Travis Bazzana grounder to second base. Then Gavin Turley drove Kasper home with a sacrifice fly to center, giving the Beavers a 1-0 lead.
Oregon State added three more runs in the second, then scored two in the third and fourth, to build an 8-2 lead heading into the fifth inning. Kasper and Dernedde each drove in two runs, while Garret Forrester and Micah McDowell added sacrifice flies.
Things started to unravel in the bottom of the sixth, when poor base running by Bazzana and Ruben Cedillo cost the Beavers two outs and ruined a potential big inning. Then, in the top of the seventh, a costly error change momentum. After Bateman opened the inning by ripping a double to the left-center gap and Counsell worked a full-count walk two batters later, Oregon State turned to reliever Nelson Keljo to face cleanup hitter Jake Perry with one out and runners on first and second.
The freshman left-hander threw two quick strikes, then scooped up a grounder hit right at him, twisted and threw to second base to start an inning-ending double play. But Bazzana dropped the throw at second to load the bases. The Golden Gophers took advantage, scoring five runs in the inning to pull within 8-7.
Keljo allowed two hits and a walk during Minnesota’s comeback, but avoided disaster by striking out Kyle Bork on three pitches to end the inning.
Minnesota never threatened again.
Oregon State closer Ryan Brown relieved Keljo in the eighth and pitched two scoreless innings to earn his first save of the season, allowing one hit and striking out two. When Brown fanned Riley Swenson to end the game, he let out a monster scream and flexed. Forrester and Mikey Kane celebrated with a leaping chest bump near the mound and Oregon State’s outfielders followed suit, jumping in the air for a three-man bump in center field at Surprise Stadium.
Rhett Larson (1-0) earned the win in relief during his first appearance with the Beavers, allowing three hits and one earned run in 2 1/3 innings. He relieved starter Jacob Kmatz, who allowed seven hits and two runs over four innings.
The Beavers avoided their first season-opening two-game losing streak since 2001, when they opened with a three-game sweep at Cal State Northridge.
“We had a choice,” Dernedde said. “We could dwell on the loss, come out again and play the same game. Or we could learn from it, prove that’s not who we are, that’s not how we play, that’s not how we trained all fall. Today was a new opportunity and a new day and we responded. We have a lot of new faces and we’re still kind of figuring out how to compete with each other. We’re just going to keep growing from here.”
Next up: The Beavers continue their four-game season-opening tournament on Sunday with an 11 a.m. rematch against New Mexico at Surprise Stadium.
— Joe Freeman reported from Surprise, Arizona.
jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories
