TUCSON, Ariz. — For 26 of 27 innings, it would be hard to argue that No. 6 Oregon State — the class of the Pac-12 baseball circuit for much of the last two decades — wasn’t the better team throughout a regular-season-ending three-game set at No. 14 Arizona.
But in that 27th inning — the ninth inning of a Saturday finale with the final regular-season crown of the conference’s 12-team era on the line — it was the Wildcats who effectively snatched the trophy back out of the Beavers’ hands. Arizona’s Brendan Summerhill hit a two-run, walk-off double to the deep right-center alley off OSU’s Joey Mundt to send the Wildcats sprinting toward a shallow centerfield dogpile after securing the 4-3 title-clinching victory.
The Beavers stood stunned on the railing of their third-base dugout at Tucson’s Hi Corbett Field, watching Arizona celebrate a victory — a championship — that minutes before they were an inch or two away from earning in their own right.
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Saturday’s matchup, the final Pac-12 game in Tucson across all sports with the Wildcats and most of their counterparts departing this summer for other conferences, was nothing like its Thursday and Friday predecessors; in those victories, OSU looked dominant on the mound and other-worldly at the plate in a pair of wins, outscoring Arizona (33-20, 20-10 Pac-12) a combined 25-3 and erasing the Wildcats’ multiple-game lead in the conference standings in the process; that set up Saturday’s winner-take-all last call.
In the top of the ninth of a 2-2 game, Oregon State (41-13, 19-10) took another lead, albeit brief, when Jabin Trosky singled home Easton Talt, but it was the play before Trosky’s hit that may end up sticking with Beavers head coach Mitch Canham, his staff and the OSU players — specifically Elijah Hainline — for a bit.
Hainline was on second base (Talt on first) with one out when Jacob Krieg hit a hard grounder toward the hole between short and third. Arizona shortstop Mason White retreated, snatched the ball, and quickly chucked it to third baseman Richie Morales in an attempt to get the lead runner. The nearby umpire immediately called Hainline out, but Canham and the OSU coaching staff pled for a replay review; Morales’ foot appeared to come off the bag on multiple video replay angles, but what wasn’t clear was whether it came back down before Hainline hit the bag himself. In one of those plays that surely will have Oregon State faithful saying Hainline beat Morales’ foot to the bag, and Arizona followers claiming any such evidence wasn’t enough to overturn it, the umpiring crew elected to go with the call on the field; Hainline was out.
Talt would score on the next play to give OSU the lead, but that missing run would have certainly been useful in the bottom half of the ninth (though Arizona’s ultimate game-winning run by Tommy Splaine did come with just one out).
Prior to the action-packed final inning, the rest of the game was a back-and-forth affair worthy of the eventual first- and second-place finishers. Arizona got on the board first in the bottom of the second on a fielder choice, while OSU scored twice in the top of the third, including on an RBI double by Travis Bazzana as part of his 3-for-5 night at the plate; Bazzana was a force all series, going 7-for-14 with five runs scored, two RBIs, and two walks over the three games combined.
Arizona tied Saturday’s tilt in the bottom of the sixth on a Garen Caulfield sacrifice fly before the ninth-inning fireworks took over.
Both starting pitchers were on point, too, with OSU’s Eric Segura allowing just three hits and one run while striking out five and walking two in five innings pitched. Arizona’s Cam Walty went 8⅓ innings, allowing six scattered hits and two earned runs while striking out eight.
Oregon State had won seven straight heading in to Saturday, with the Beavers’ 9-2 win over the Wildcats in Thursday’s series opener their lowest offensive output of that win streak. In all Oregon State score 93 runs during those seven wins, an average of more than 13 per game.
“They're a very good team. They're gonna be one of the national seeds for sure,” Arizona coach Chip Hale said postgame, and post celebration. “We're really, really proud to have beat them tonight to win the conference. But we're gonna see them this week in Phoenix. We stay at the same hotel, so we’ll see a lot of them.”