Oregon State baseball’s winning streak ends as Cal Poly rallies in 9th

Oregon State seemed well positioned to continue its winning ways on the baseball diamond Saturday as the Beavers played the final innings against the Cal Poly Mustangs.

The sixth-ranked Beavers held a narrow lead, then tacked on one run in the eighth and another in the ninth to pad their advantage to three runs.

But Cal Poly rallied for four runs in the bottom of the ninth and won 7-6, walking off to victory on Jack Collins’ two-run, two-out homer at Baggett Stadium in San Luis Obispo, California.

The loss snapped Oregon State’s 11-game winning streak and knotted up the three-game series against the Mustangs (14-7).

There were plenty of positives for the Beavers (17-4) before things unraveled late.

Aiva Arquette blasted a first-inning solo home run for the second consecutive game. Although right-hander Dax Whitney might not have had his best stuff, the OSU offense provided support and the Beavers led 4-3 by the time Whitney exited after four innings. AJ Hutcheson then tossed three scoreless innings, and the Beavers added those two late runs on solo homers from Jacob Krieg, who finished 3 for 4 with three RBIs, and Easton Talt.

But OSU reliever Zach Edwards, who had entered in the eighth, ran into trouble in the ninth. Cal Poly pinch hitter Cam Hoiland led off with a double, and then Zach Daudet sent the first pitch he saw to right-center for an RBI single.

After Dante Vachini got aboard with a single to put runners on first and third, the Beavers pulled Edwards and turned to Wyatt Queen. The Mustangs trimmed the lead to 6-5 on Ryan Fenn’s sacrifice fly, but then Queen got Alejandro Garza to foul out and the Beavers were one out away from an escape.

That brought Collins to the plate, however, and he crushed Queen’s first offering to left to end the game. Queen (1-1) took the loss.

Next up: Oregon State closes out its series against Cal Poly at 12:35 p.m. Sunday (ESPN+).

— Joel Odom