Ahlstrom shuts down Beavers as Ducks take 7-0 win on Friday night; claim series victory with 3-0 victory on Saturday

Oregon State (10-2) had won 10 straight after a 3-2 loss to Kansas State in the season opener. The Beavers, however, had no answers for Ducks' (7-2) pitching on Friday.

Ahlstrom gave up three singles — two to Andy Armstrong and another to Jacob Melton — while throwing 78 pitches, with 62 going for strikes.

"I don't think we did a good job with our pitch selection necessarily," OSU coach Mitch Canham said. "I thought we took too many good pitches and then chased some things that were out of the zone on us.

"… There's a handful of balls early I thought we squared up pretty good, you know, unfortunately they were right at guys which prevented much of a rally from going on. When we did square it up, we hit it to them. And it allowed him to go deep into the game."

Oregon State ace Kevin Abel wasn't able to keep pace with Ahlstrom as the righty left after 4⅓ innings, allowing five runs on six hits and three walks. He had nine strikeouts and threw 100 pitches.

"They laid off some pitches that we were typically getting some chase on," Canham said. "But we've got to do a better job getting ahead in the count. A couple of times we were just giving up some free bases. Especially early, each time a walk or hit by pitch or what have you, those guys ended up scoring and that's not the kind of baseball that we want to play."

Tanner Smith did the most damage for the Ducks, driving in four runs with a single and triple, while Kenyon Yovan homered and singled in another run to pace the nine-hit attack of the Ducks.

The Ducks took a 4-0 lead in the second. A leadoff walk to Aaron Zavala and wild pitch set up Josh Kasevich, who delivered a single to right to make it 1-0. Another single and hit by pitch loaded the bases before Abel got two outs. But leadoff batter Smith ripped a triple to right-center to clear the bases.

While it was early, it proved to be a big moment.

"Yeah if you can get a shutdown right there and they end up not scoring another three obviously you've got the momentum-shift energy and a one-nothing game's different than a four-nothing," Canham said. "But we know what these guys are capable of doing and how much they fight late in the game so really being down four in the first couple innings you shouldn't be pushing any panic buttons because there's a lot of game left to be played. Unfortunately, we didn't run anyone across the dish tonight."

Abel settled into a bit of a groove by striking out five total in the third and the fourth innings, but Yovan homered to open the fifth. It was the first homer Abel has allowed this season and put the Ducks up 5-0.

Oregon used a hit batter and a walk to get things going in the sixth. After a sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third, Smith delivered a single up the middle to drive in a run for a 6-0 lead. Yovan followed with a single and the lead was 7-0 before Will Frisch struck out the next two batters.

The teams met again Saturday afternoon and the Ducks held the Beavers scoreless again in a 3-0 victory. Oregon pitcher Cullen Kafka threw five innings and gave up just two hits with eight strikeouts and four walks, earning his first victory of the season. Reliever Andrew Mosiello threw just 41 pitches over the last four innings for the save, yielding just two hits and striking out three.

Ducks freshman Josh Kasevich had a two-RBI triple and Aaron Zavala drove in Gabe Matthews as Oregon did all its offensive damage in the sixth inning.

Oregon State's Cooper Hjerpe lost his first decision of the season. Hjerpe was solid through the first five innings, but was unable to get through the sixth. He went 5⅔, giving up six hits and striking out seven with just one walk.

The Beavers will look to avoid a sweep on Sunday, when the final game of the series kicks off at 1:05 p.m.