Oregon State finishes off sweep of Utah for 23rd straight win

CORVALLIS, Ore. — Cadyn Grenier and KJ Harrison each homered and Jake Thompson allowed one run in a career-long 8 1/3 innings to send top-ranked Oregon State to a 5-1 win over Utah on Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

The victory marked Oregon State's 23rd consecutive victory, tying the 1988 Arizona State Sun Devils for the longest win streak by a conference club. OSU can break that record Tuesday night when hosting Gonzaga at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

Oregon State improved to 28-1 on the year, and 12-0 in Pac-12 action. The Utes, meanwhile, fell to 12-16 overall and 3-9 in league play.

BEAVERS WIN 5-1 and have tied the Pac-12 record with consecutive victories.#GoBeavs pic.twitter.com/QOsBMw1LV1

— Oregon St. Baseball (@BeaverBaseball) April 9, 2017

Thompson allowed one hit over his career-long 8 1/3 innings, walking three with seven strikeouts. His lone hit allowed was a two-out double by DaShawn Keirsey Jr. that scored Josh Rose from second.

Thompson, a Florence, Oregon, native, picked up the win to improve to 7-0, which ties him for the Pac-12 lead.

RELATED: D1Baseball.com rankings

Cadyn Grenier put the Beavers on the board in the third, answering an earlier Utah run with a three-run home run over the fence in left. The round-tripper marked the fourth of his season and extended his hit streak to eight games.

It's another Oregon State sweeeeeep.

Highlights from our 23rd consecutive victory.

Go Beavs! pic.twitter.com/igPzzDtQf4

— Oregon St. Baseball (@BeaverBaseball) April 9, 2017

Nick Madrigal doubled for the third time in the series, in the fifth, scoring Jack Anderson, and Harrison hit his third home run of 2017 in the fifth, putting his solo shot over the fence in left. The round tripper put OSU up 5-1.

The loss went to Utah starter Josh Lapiana, who allowed seven hits and five runs in six innings. He dropped to 2-4.

Mitch Hickey earned his first save of the season after getting the final two outs of the game. He entered with runners on first and second and one down in the ninth.

Winning conference series

The Beavers, of course, have swept all four conference series and are the first conference team to go 12-0 to start league play since the Pac-10 unified in 1999. Oregon State has won its last six conference series dating back to 2016 — the Beavers took 2-of-3 at USC before sweeping UCLA to end the season. Thanks to that sweep, the Beavers have won 16 consecutive Pac-12 games.

Closer to 1,000

Sunday's win pushed Oregon State's Pat Casey to 988-550-6 in 30 years as a collegiate head coach. Casey, now in his 23rd season at Oregon State, is 817-441-5 with the Beavers.

Upping the attendance

Oregon State saw 3,250 fans at Sunday's finale and 9,446 for the three-game series. Oregon State is averaging 2,845 fans per 12 home dates (13 games overall) at Goss Stadium this season, a total of 34,147. OSU came into the series 21st nationally in average attendance and are expected to move up once all numbers are reported to the NCAA after the weekend.