After taking a series from the No. 23 Texas Longhorns in Austin last weekend, the Washington Huskies suffered a tough loss to open a weekend series in Corvallis against the No. 2 Oregon State Beavers. Coach Jason Kelly’s team fell 3-1 and failed to muster much at the plate against the Beavers pitching staff.
In a bullpen game for the Beavers, the Huskies were only able to manage 5 hits and struck out 13 times, with the only run coming on an RBI single from second baseman Aiva Arquette in the fifth inning.
Kellan Oakes earned his third win of the season for the Beavers, going 2 1/3 innings and allowing just 1 hit. Bridger Holmes mustered his fourth save of the year, striking out 3 batters and walking 2 over the final two innings.
Starter Jared Engman allowed just 3 runs on 3 hits, but also walked 6 batters over 5 innings of work and took the loss, falling to 0-4 on the season.
He gave up a leadoff home run to second baseman Travis Bazzana and was able to stop the bleeding after allowing two more runs in the third inning, including an RBI single to left fielder Dallas Macias. Reliever Grant Cunningham went the rest of the way for the Huskies, walking 3 batters and striking out 2 over the last three innings of the contest.
The loss knocked the Huskies down to a 6-9-1 record on the season and 1-3 in Pac-12 play, while the Beavers improved to 19-2 overall and 3-1 in conference play. The two teams will face off again on Saturday afternoon at 2:05.