There was no stopping Oregon State's momentum once it started Saturday as the No. 7 Beavers smacked Nebraska 17-1 in baseball in Surprise, Arizona.Â
Oregon State racked up 18 hits and Sam Tweedt scattered five hits and a run in six innings as the Beavers stayed unbeaten at 7-0.
Oregon State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, then scored five in the third — sending 11 batters to the plate — and four runs in the fourth to spring out to a 10-0 lead before Nebraska scored its only run of the game in the fifth inning. The Beavers then added six more runs in the final two innings to complete the barrage.
“We’re a team trying to find out who we are, " Nebraska coach Darin Erstad said. "Depth becomes an issue and we’re not as deep as they are, and the guys they are rolling out, they’re three-deep at positions and we’re not.â€
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Starting pitcher Nate Fisher took the loss for the Huskers, surrendering six earned runs on eight hits, including four doubles. The bullpen didn't do much to stop the bleeding as Max Schreiber, Ethan Frazier and Paul Tillotson combined to give up nine more runs on 10 hits.
The Beavers had 18 hits, but only five of those were for extra bases. Outfielder Kyler McMahan put on a clinic at the plate, getting a career-best four hits in five at-bats with four runs and two doubles. Four other Oregon State players finished with multi-hit games.
Jaxon Hallmark scored Nebraska's only run of the night on an RBI single by Cam Chick in the fifth. There was no shortage of opportunities for the Huskers to get on the board. They left 11 men on base.Â
The loss dropped Nebraska (3-4) to below .500 on the year, and Oregon State took a 3-0 series lead after a pair of wins — 8-2 and 5-3 — over the Huskers on Friday.
“These are all good learning lessons; you obviously never want that to happen, but one of the big moments right now, whether you win by 20 or you lose by 20, the score says 0-0 tomorrow, and that’s the beauty of baseball," Erstad said.
Nebraska will look to avoid the sweep in the series finale at 10 a.m. Sunday.