After the final swing in an emotional and often exceptional season of ups and downs, Brady Kasper strolled solemnly toward the third base dugout at Alex Box Stadium.
The Oregon State Beavers outfielder, who had just struck out to end the season, didn’t make it five steps before he reached the waiting arms of Travis Bazzana.
The two roommates and close friends wrapped their burly arms around each other and the tears instantly flowed as the reality of the moment hit them: It was over. The season. Their dreams of playing in the College World Series. Their time with these teammates. All of it was purged by a potent LSU Tigers offense in front of rowdy crowd in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
So they stood there between home plate and the dugout for nearly a minute, hugging and sobbing, as Bazzana tried to comfort his talented teammate.
“I just wanted to acknowledge him and pick him up,” Bazzana said. “Being the last out is tough. And he’s just had a hell of a last couple days and a hell of a season. I’m just happy for that guy and I wanted to make sure his chin stayed up.”
The Tigers beat the Beavers 13-7 Monday afternoon in the Baton Rouge Regional, pounding an undermanned pitching staff with 19 hits, including four home runs, as every starter recorded at least one hit and produced at least one RBI. After a promising first three innings from OSU right-hander Rhett Larson, the Tigers (46-15) mauled a staff that traveled without two injured weekend starters, scoring 12 runs over the next four innings to bury the second-seeded Beavers (41-20).
Regional MVP Dylan Crews went 3 for 4 with a homer and three runs scored, monster catcher Hayden Travinski finished 3 for 6 with a home run and two RBIs, and the Tigers’ relentless lineup suffocated a shorthanded pitching staff. In the end, after enduring two days of weather delays and surviving a marathon Sunday doubleheader just to reach the regional final, the Beavers simply ran out of gas against the No. 5 national seed and tournament host.
“We came up short,” Oregon State coach Mitch Canham said. “But there wasn’t any lack of effort or attitude in what these guys were trying to do, and that was win it all. So I’m proud of them. I love them. They’re hurting right now pretty good, but I know they’re going to respond, because that’s what they do.”
The reality is that it would have taken a magical run for the Beavers to make it to Omaha. The program lost eight MLB draft picks from last year’s championship-contending team and had to break in six new starters and all but one new piece of the weekend rotation. Monday’s lineup featured five underclassmen, including one freshman.
If anything, one could argue, the Beavers overachieved when they caught fire in April and went 23-7 over the final 30 regular-season games to finish second in the Pac-12. The spring surge, combined with the last two weeks and the experience of fighting through multiple postseason tournaments on the road, should only embolden a young roster that figures to be a contender next season.
The Beavers landed four players on the all-tournament team — Gavin Turley, Bazzana, Garret Forrester and Mikey Kane — and only Forrester, one of the most respected leaders and talented hitters on the roster, is eligible for the draft. The nucleus that does return is, as Bazzana notes, littered with “a bunch of fighters.”
That was obvious Monday, when, before the game, Canham says every pitcher on the staff — including all seven who threw during Sunday’s doubleheader — approached him to ask for the ball, saying: “I’m good to go today.” And it was evident in the final inning, when everyone outside of the home dugout knew they wouldn’t overcome a 13-4 deficit, but the Beavers kept grinding, kept battling, until the final out.
As Alex Box simmered with anticipation, the Beavers made 11,473 fans wait. Forrester opened with a single. Mason Guerra followed with a double. And Turley mashed an inside-the-park home run to left-center field. Rather than go quietly into the Baton Rouge night, the Beavers bashed home three more runs and chased one more pitcher from the game.
“I’m excited,” Canham said of the team’s future. “I’m excited because I know tomorrow morning we get on a plane and head back home. You can get distracted, but I know those guys aren’t going to. They’re going to want to go to work. When I go by the field tomorrow, there’s going to be guys hitting. There’s going to be guys playing catch. There’s going to be guys bringing out a machine and turning up the velo. That’s what makes it so I don’t worry at all. I don’t lose sleep over it. I’m excited for the next opportunity.”
The most fervent Oregon State fan is no doubt wondering how different things might have been if Jacob Kmatz and Jaren Hunter, the Beavers’ weekend starters, were healthy. Or what could have been if the Beavers had just earned one more Pac-12 regular-season series victory — or maybe snatched a couple wins in the conference tournament — and earned the right to host a regional.
Would they have escaped a regional at Goss Stadium?
It will remain a mystery, of course.
But after fighting and falling short against a Bayou behemoth that had a deeper and fresher bullpen, a more seasoned lineup and the power of a partisan crowd, this much is clear: The Beavers already are motivated to have their final swing go differently next season.
“Now we have a little bit of a bad taste in our mouth,” Turley said. “And that makes us mad. So it’s some fuel for the fire.”
Joe Freeman reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
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