CORVALLIS, Ore. – A rough first inning was too much to overcome for Stanford baseball as the Cardinal fell in the rubber match with No. 10 Oregon State, 11-4, at Goss Stadium.
The Beavers (28-12, 10-8 Pac-12) turned the tables on Sunday. One day after the Cardinal scored three in the first and never looked back, Oregon State did so with a five-spot in its first at-bat of the series finale. Stanford (20-18, 8-10 Pac-12) answered back with three in the fifth, but the hosts held off a Cardinal comeback.
Stanford held the Beavers to seven hits in a shut out on Saturday, but the hosts nearly matched that total with six hits in the first frame. A triple, single and two-run home run by K.J. Harrison made it 3-0. The Beavers then used three more singles and a walk to add on two more for a 5-0 advantage.
Junior Tyler Thorne pitched 2.2 scoreless innings in relief, and junior Chris Viall added another to keep Stanford within five heading to the fifth.
That's when the Cardinal cut the deficit to 5-3. The bases were loaded on an error and two walks. Junior Jack Klein drew a walk to score Stanford's first run, and sophomore Matt Winaker extended his hitting streak to eight games with a two-out, two-RBI single into right.
Viall tacked on another scoreless frame in the bottom of the inning, but surrendered a pair in the sixth as the Beavers extended their lead to 7-3.
The Cardinal got one back when juniors Tommy Edman and Alex Dunlap put together back-to-back two-out hits in the eighth. Edman singled and then scored when Dunlap roped a double down the left field line.
However, Oregon State added four more in the eighth for a seven-run cushion and the final margin.
NOTABLES: Dunlap has reached base in 13 straight games, the longest active streak for Stanford ... Winaker's eight-game hit streak matches the longest of the year for a Cardinal (Diekroeger) ... Winker extended his hit streak with an RBI in each of the last two games.
NEXT UP: Stanford has played 11 of the last 15 games away from Sunken Diamond, but returns home for the next four. San Francisco will make the trip to Palo Alto for a Tuesday night affair at 5:30 p.m. Then the Cardinal host rival Cal for a three-game set beginning on Thursday. All three games begin at 7 p.m., and can be seen on the Pac-12 Networks.
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A video posted by Stanford Baseball (@stanfordbsb) on May 1, 2016 at 12:02pm PDT