CORVALLIS, Ore. -- Washington scored three times in the second inning against Oregon State on Friday and made it stick in a 4-2 win at sold-out Goss Stadium.
Oregon State’s (39-9, 20-5) largest crowd of the season -- 3,909 fans -- witnessed Washington (38-11-1, 20-5) snap the Beavers’ 11-game win streak and extend its own win streak to nine games. More importantly for the visiting Huskies, they drew even with the Beavers in the race for Pac-12 supremacy.
The Huskies offense made Beavers’ starter Andrew Moore work hard in the early going. An 11-pitch walk to UW lead-off hitter Braden Bishop was an ominous sign of things to come for Moore (5-4). Although UW did not score in the first, the Huskies tagged Moore for three in the second inning.
After a ground out by Trevor Mitsui to start the second, Alex Schmidt and Austin Rei hit back-to-back singles. Branden Berry walked to load the bases and UW would score its first run when Erik Forgione was hit by a 1-2 pitch. With Bishop up to bat, Rei scored on a passed ball by catcher Logan Ice and Berry eventually scored on a ground out by Bishop.
UW starter Jared Fisher kept the Beavers’ bats under wraps until the fifth inning when they struck for two runs to snap a 10-inning scoreless streak during the past three games for Fisher. No. 9 hitter Trever Morrison hit a clean two-out, two-strike single through the hole between first and second to score a couple runs and make it 3-2 heading to the sixth.
Fisher gave six strong innings for UW before handing the ball off to his bullpen. He allowed two earned runs on five hits, walked one and struck out three in improving his record to 6-3.
Reliever Trevor Dunlap walked a tight-rope in the seventh walking two and balking them both into scoring position, but he got struck out the side to escape unscathed.
The Dawgs added to their lead in the eighth, scoring an unearned run off Brandon Jackson. Schmidt led off the inning with a single and pinch-runner Chris Baker advanced on a sacrifice by Rei. With two outs, Forgione hit a grounder to short that Morrison tried to back-hand but went under his glove for an error. Baker was able to score from second on the play to make it 4-2.
Dunlap wiggled out of a jam in the eighth before handing the ball over to Huskies’ closer Troy Rallings in the ninth inning. He had a 1-2-3 inning to pick up his ninth save in nine tries.
