A one-sided affair took place Sunday afternoon at Bailey-Brayton Field. The Oregon State Beavers snatched the three-game series from the WSU Cougars, winning the final game 8-1 behind a dominant pitching performance by Oregon junior Jace Fry. 

The Oregon State starter cruised through eight innings, allowing one run on three hits and striking out six. The Cougar offense looked nothing like how it played Friday night against Fry’s teammate, senior Ben Wetzlern. Instead, the team did not score until the bottom of the eighth inning and struggled to capitalize during the entire game. 

“It was the same team, but we played much differently though,” said Head Coach Donnie Marbut. “We were really uncourageous and we got punched in the face today and there was just no reaction, so I guess on Sunday, they just wanted to get their face kicked in.”

Fry did not pitch without making any mistakes on Sunday. The starter walked five batters on the day, and the Cougars managed to load the bases in the second and fifth innings. However, WSU failed to score in either of those innings, and the team left a total of nine runners on base. 

 “We’re driving an automatic car,” Marbut said. “We don’t have any clutch.”

The Cougars finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth inning when redshirt sophomore Nick Tanielu led with a triple into the right-center gap in the outfield. Tanielu scored on a groundout by junior catcher P.J. Jones, but that was the only damage the Cougars could do. Tanielu finished the day at 2 for 4. 

“We just didn’t play well,” said Tanielu. “Pitching didn’t help and hitters didn’t hit at all in this game. It’s just how it is. Sometimes it’s like that, and I wish it wouldn’t have went that way but there’s nothing we can do now.”

Meanwhile, the Beavers jumped on Cougars’ starter, senior Jason Monda, in the first inning. However, after scoring two runs in their first at-bat, the Beavers put up zeroes in the next three innings as Monda settled down. In the fifth inning, Oregon State added two more to take a 4-0 lead, and although Monda finished that inning and trotted out to mound for the sixth, he could not make it much farther. He faced one batter in the sixth inning and gave up a leadoff single, which ended his day. Senior reliever Kellen Camus eventually got out of the inning unharmed by forcing a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame. 

The Beavers tallied four more runs in the seventh to break the game wide open, and that was plenty to support Fry on the way to his seventh win of the season. 

With the loss, the Cougars fell back to an even 16-16 record heading into their next game on Tuesday against the Gonzaga Bulldogs.