The Oregon State Beavers entered Sunday night's NCAA Tournament game in Corvallis firmly in control of their own destiny after surviving Friday and Saturday with a 2-0 record. Facing the Georgia Bulldogs, Oregon State needed to win only once to advance to the Super Regionals, while Georgia needed to down the Beavers twice to advance to the next round.
Playing as the home team despite Oregon State hosting the regional in Corvallis, Georgia struck first as Kyle Farmar drove in Levi Hyams with a groundout to third. Hyams reached base with a single to start the inning and worked his way to second on a wild pitch. A flyout put Hyams on third before Farmar brought him in.
Oregon State struck back quickly as Parker Berberet took Georgia starter Blake Dietrich deep. It was a theme for the Beavers in the early-goings; Georgia would score, but Oregon State would always find a quick answer, battling back to hang with the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs were threatening again in the second, chasing Oregon State starter Josh Osich from the game after he began the inning by putting two on with no outs. But Scott Schultz safely navigated the Beavers away from danger, retiring the Bulldogs and keeping the score tied at one heading into the third.
Georgia jumped back into the lead in the bottom of the third, and it was Farmar doing the dirty work again. After Curt Powell reached base on a fielder's choice, Farmar brought him home with a deep double to left-center, giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.
But, again, the Beavers answered immediately, plating two in the top of the fourth to take their first lead of the game. Andrew Susac led the inning off with a triple to left, and the Beavers had a the tying run on third with nobody out. After Ryan Dunn was hit by a pitch, Berberet singled, driving in Susac for his second RBI of the game. The Beavers loaded the bases after the next batter, Carter Bell, was hit by a pitch, and Jake Rodriguez gave Oregon State a 3-2 lead with a sac fly.
Oregon State tacked on another in the seventh when Brian Stamps went deep, and the Beavers held a commanding 4-2 lead. But like all leads in the game, it was short-lived. Georgia fired back in the bottom of the seventh with two runs to knot the game at four. Johnathan Hester doubled and reached third on an error to begin the inning, with pinch-hitter Chase Davidson driving him in with a single. Farmar picked up another RBI as he drove Davidson in from third with two outs in the inning to knot the game heading into the eighth inning.
In the top of the eight, Oregon State strung together a one-out rally, loading the bases for pinch-hitter Jared Norris. With pinch-runner Mike Miller on third, Norris lifted a ball to shallow center, allowing Miller to score on the sacrifice fly. However, a baserunning bungle saw Carter Bell get thrown out at third, ending the inning after the go-ahead run scored.
The Beavers tacked on an insurance run in the top of the ninth as Kevin Kayes ripped a double to right, bringing Ryan Barnes around to score from second. Kayes was thrown out at third after getting greedy and trying to stretch his double into a triple.
The bottom of the ninth would've been better set to Benny Hill music and took far longer than it should have. Oregon State closer Tony Bryant took a line-drive off his pitching arm, forcing the first delay of the inning as trainers rushed to his aid and watched intently as he warmed up again. Immediately after he was deemed able to continue, a bank of lights at the stadium went out, forcing another lengthy delay as officials waited for the lights to cool-down and fire back up.
After all that, Oregon State made it out unscathed, making it out of the Corvallis region with a 6-4 win. The Beavers will face Vanderbilt in the Super Regionals next week.
For more on the game, check out our NCAA baseball regionals StoryStream, or head over to Building the Dam for all your Oregon State needs. SB Nation Atlanta has the coverage from the Georgia side of things in this StoryStream.