ROUND ROCK, Texas — After opening the Round Rock Classic with an impressive and imposing victory, during which they earned praise from opposing coaches and looked like the best team in college baseball, the Oregon State Beavers had an opportunity to keep the early-season mojo going.
Instead, they flopped.
Dax Whitney had a rough collegiate encore, the bullpen imploded and the lineup fizzled, resulting in Oregon State’s first loss of the season, 8-4, to the Oklahoma Sooners Saturday night before 4,151 at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas.
If the seventh-ranked Beavers’ bolstered their national standing — and RPI — with Friday’s dominant performance, they took a disheartening step back roughly 24 hours later.
“Not our best baseball, obviously,” OSU coach Mitch Canham said, adding later, “sure, yesterday was a good win. But it’s irrelevant because of what happened today.”
Perhaps that’s a little overstated. But after opening with near-flawless performances over the first five games of the season, the Beavers, at the very least, showed a few warts against a talented Oklahoma (5-0) club.
OSU’s lineup managed just five hits, finishing a paltry 2 for 11 (.181) with runners in scoring position. The pitching staff allowed nine free passes, including eight walks, routinely setting the table for the Sooners’ sluggers. Even the defense, which has been exceptional all season, coughed up an unearned run.
And worst of all, Canham said, the body language of his players — especially his pitching staff — made it obvious to anyone that OSU was struggling.
“Where’s your intent at?” Canham said. “Are you trying to throw a strike? Or are you ready to rip it through the zone? It’s a strong learning moment for each and every one of those guys. You can just tell from the look that guys get when they’re on the mound.
“You take a little bit of adversity and then you learn from it. And all in all, it’s a gift. It gives us a reason to understand complacency is not a thing that we should ever fall into. And sometimes you have to fall so you can get back up even stronger.”
For three innings, the Beavers (5-1) actually looked plenty strong. Whitney was even more electric than he was in last week’s debut, striking out six of the first 11 batters he faced — including the first four of the game — as he mowed through the Sooners’ experienced, explosive offense. And OSU’s lineup provided an early cushion, using a Trent Caraway leadoff single and Aiva Arquette two-run home run to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
But the wheels feel off in the top of the fourth inning. Whitney plunked No. 3 hitter Easton Carmichael with the first pitch, gave up a double to Trey Gambill and then coughed up a bloop single to Kyle Branch, sending a pair of Oklahoma runs home — the first of Whitney’s young career.
And they wouldn’t be the last.
Two pitches later, Scott Mudler belted a two-run homer, clobbering an 0-1 fastball into the left-center field bullpen to give the Sooners a 4-2 lead. Whitney never recovered, walking the next two batters, which prompted OSU pitching coach Rich Dorman to yank him from the game.
The 6-foot-5 freshman phenom touched 98 mph with his fastball last week, when he tossed five shutout innings to earn Perfect Game National Pitcher of the Week honors. And he opened the game Saturday sitting around 96. But his velocity dipped to the low-90s in the fourth as he labored through the rough inning.
Canham said afterward that Whitney (1-1), who suffered his first loss, was physically fine. It just happened to be one of those nights for a teenager making his second career start .
“I think that was an important outing for his development,” Canham said. “To be able to quickly turn the page and not let one thing turn into two. What you want is, you want to be in there as long as possible. You never want someone to take the ball from your hand. I know Dax is That Guy, and so learning how to handle it, pitch by pitch, is going to help him. It was his second start as a collegiate athlete, facing a good offense. He’s not only going to be great, he’s going to be elite, and we all know that. So sometimes, you go through some of this stuff to learn.”
Things only got worse for the Oregon State staff after Whitney departed.
Laif Palmer walked three of the five batters he faced, as 15 of his 22 pitches were balls. AJ Hutcheson replaced Palmer and promptly airmailed a second-base pick-off attempt into center field, sending a runner to third base. The runner later scored. And Drew Talavs let the game get away in the sixth, allowing three runs on two hits and two walks over 2/3 of an inning. His night ended when Carmichael hammered a two-run homer to deep left field, giving Oklahoma an 8-2 lead.
Wyatt Queen stopped the bleeding, tossing 2 1/2 scoreless innings, during which he recorded three strikeouts. But the damage had already been done. You could see it on the body language of the Beavers’ pitching staff.
“I told everyone they should go back, rewatch the game when Wyatt was pitching,” Canham said. “Don’t worry about where (his pitch) was in the zone or the result of it. Just watch how he moved around the mound, watch his intent when he got the ball back, the look in his eyes and how he released it. And you can watch any of the other guys when things are going good … their body language is extremely loud.”
As for the Oregon State offense, there weren’t many loud at-bats Saturday night. Arquette went 2 for 3 with a walk and that two-run homer and AJ Singer continued his strong early-season run, smashing a two-run single in the eighth. But, otherwise, it was a quiet night for an offense that entered the game averaging 12.8 hits and 10.8 runs per game.
It was the Beavers’ first clunker of the season, but they don’t have to wait long to respond — Oregon State plays the finale of the Round Rock Classic on Sunday.
And Canham has little doubt he’ll see a better performance.
“They’re going to wake up, they’re going to have big energy and there’s no other option,” he said. “This is a group that, when you get punched in the chest, it’s going to wake you up. You don’t just go crawl in the corner and say, ‘Whoa is me.’ There’s no time for that. … I trust that they’re going to bring it.”
Next up: The Beavers play the Minnesota Golden Gophers at 10 a.m. Sunday at Dell Diamond.
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | @freemanjoe.bsky.social | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.