CORVALLIS — Before the Oregon State baseball team played its final midweek game of the season, coach Mitch Canham strolled up to sophomore Laif Palmer with a simple question.
“How are we feeling?” he asked, assessing the readiness of his right-handed reliever.
“We’re in the last four games of the regular season,” Palmer replied. “We’ve got a week-and-a-half off after this. So, yeah, I’m good.”
Good enough, anyway. And that pretty much sums up the seventh-ranked Beavers’ 5-3 win over the Portland Pilots on Tuesday night at Goss Stadium. Oregon State was good enough.
James DeCremer had a solid performance in his first-career start, Palmer was dominant out of the bullpen, AJ Singer had a three-hit game and the Beavers (38-12-1) walked their way to a sluggish win before 3,542 in Corvallis.
Canham stopped himself mid-sentence from saying his team didn’t play well, but it was clear he left Goss longing for more from a group that found itself in a dogfight with the Pilots (21-27) well into the late innings Tuesday night.
When Singer and Canon Reeder smacked back-to-back run-scoring singles in the bottom of the fifth inning, it gave the Beavers a 3-1 lead and control of the game. But Tyce Peterson struck out with the bases loaded to end the inning without further damage, and the Pilots immediately responded in the top half of the sixth, using a Riley McCarthy two-run single to tie the game 3-3.
After playing 18 of the previous 21 games on the road or in neutral-site parks, it looked like the travel-weary Beavers might fade from there. Instead, they gutted out a gritty win with a pair of seventh-inning runs.
Wilson Weber started the rally with a one-out triple off the left field wall and Singer kept things going with an infield single, putting runners on the corners. Two batters later, Reeder drew a walk to load the bases and it was a prelude of things to come. Peterson followed with an eight-pitch walk, bringing home the go-ahead run, and three pitches later, Pilots reliever Kaden Starr plunked Dallas Macias in the back with a 2-0 fastball, giving Oregon State a 5-3 edge.
It proved to be enough for Palmer. The 6-foot-6 sophomore closed the game with 2 1/3 hitless innings, retiring all seven batters he faced on 27 pitches, to improve to 2-0 this season.
“I really liked what we all saw out of Palmer,” Canham said. “He’s just filling it up.”
The Beavers also saw a few nice things out of DeCremer.
The 6-2 redshirt freshman, who found out four hours before Tuesday’s first pitch that he would be making his first start, worked around a rough second inning to deliver a solid performance. He allowed one run on five hits and finished with three strikeouts in four innings, during which he threw 54 pitches, including 39 for strikes.
DeCremer was untouchable in the first inning, retiring the side in order on just seven pitches — all strikes — but had a bumpy second inning, giving up four hits and his only run. Portland cleanup hitter Zach Toglia led off the inning with a home run to left field, crushing a 2-1 pitch into the parking lot over the bullpen, and it seemed to momentarily rattle DeCremer. Cole Katayama-Stall followed with a single to right field, McCarthy ripped a double down the third base line, Henry Muench hit a pop-up to third base that Trent Caraway couldn’t handle, and, suddenly, the Pilots had the bases loaded with no outs.
But DeCremer didn’t bat an eye.
He worked out of the jam on just six pitches, using a pair of flyouts and a strikeout to escape further damage, then tossed scoreless innings in the third and fourth. DeCremer lobbied to return for the fifth, but was overruled by pitching coach Rich Dorman.
“Of course, you always try,” he said, smiling, when asked if he tried to talk his way into another inning. “But you have, like, 20 guys in the pen that can all do a really good job. So it doesn’t matter. We won.”
Singer finished 3 for 5 with two RBIs, delivering run-scoring singles in the first and fifth innings, and Aiva Arquette went 2 for 5, as two of the Beavers’ most consistent hitters produced more than half of the the team’s nine hits.
It wasn’t the prettiest win, but it was a win nonetheless, moving the Beavers to the doorstep of their final series of the regular season.
“We pulled it out, which is great,” Canham said. “But I still have extremely high expectations for what the guys need to do.”
Next up: The Beavers open a three-game series against the Long Beach State Dirtbags on Thursday night. First pitch is scheduled for 5:35.
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | @freemanjoe.bsky.social | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.
