Travis Bazzana and the Oregon State baseball team completed the Pac-12 regular season in style Sunday in Los Angeles.
Bazzana finished with a career-high five hits — including a grand slam — and the 15th-ranked Beavers pounded the UCLA Bruins, 21-5, in the rubber match of a three-game conference series at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
The Beavers (36-15, 18-12 Pac-12) scored their most runs of the season and recorded their most hits in Pac-12 play, bulldozing the Bruins (26-21-1, 11-14-1) to remain in a tie for second place in the Pac-12 standings with the Washington Huskies, who swept the Oregon Ducks this weekend in Eugene.
The rest of the Pac-12 will finish conference play this week, so Oregon State — which hosts Western Carolina in a nonconference series starting Thursday — will have to wait out the results to learn its seed for the Pac-12 Baseball Tournament.
While they wait, the Beavers will be able relish an impressive final performance in conference play.
The Beavers broke open a 3-3 game with a barrage of late-game fireworks, scoring 18 runs over the final four innings to blitz the Bruins. The scoring flurry started with a four-run sixth, when OSU built a 7-3 lead, and ended with an eight-run ninth to put a bow on the blowout.
Bazzana was in the middle of most of the fireworks, mixing small ball with the long ball to end an electric series. He finished 5 for 7 with five RBIs, four runs scored and one stolen base as he did a little bit of everything Sunday. The Australian executed three beautiful bunt singles, ripped a run-scoring single in the seventh and finished the dominant day with a deep grand slam that landed atop the right field batting cages in the top of the ninth inning.
It was the exclamation point on a menacing series for the sophomore second baseman, who went 9 for 16 with two homers, two doubles, 10 RBIs and seven runs scored in three games against the Bruins. He leads the Beavers with 25 multi-hit games this season.
But, more or less, if you played Sunday wearing an Oregon State uniform, you did something at the plate. Nine Beavers finished with RBIs, eight recorded hits and nine scored runs.
Micah McDowell finished 3 for 6 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Mason Guerra went 3 for 6 with four RBIs and two doubles — and had another extra-base hit robbed with a sensational diving catch in center field. And Gavin Turley (two hits, three runs, Tanner Smith (two hits, three runs) and Kyle Dernedde (two hits, four runs) combined to produce six hits and 10 runs out of the bottom three spots of the batting order.
Turley belted a home run and a double and Smith added a double for an OSU offense that finished with four doubles and two homers.
And as the late-game fireworks erupted, the Beavers’ bullpen cruised. Oregon State relievers combined to throw 6 1/3 innings, allowing two earned runs and five hits, while striking out six. Freshman left-hander Nelson Keljo (2-0) earned the win, striking out two in 1 1/3 hitless innings.
The bullpen helped Oregon State win its first series over the Bruins since 2018 and first at Jackie Robinson Stadium since 2017.
Next up: The Beavers host the Portland Pilots Tuesday at 5:35 in a midweek nonconference game at Goss Stadium in Corvallis.
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
