Goodbye, top five.
The Oregon State Beavers’ place among the top five collegiate baseball teams came to an end on Monday with the release of the most recent set of national rankings.
After a disappointing week in which they went 1-4 and suffered a stunning sweep at the hands of the Cal Bears in Berkeley, California, the Beavers staggered out of the top 10 in four of the five major polls, dropping as low as No. 13 on one ballot.
No. 9 in the D1Baseball Top 25, No. 10 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, No. 11 in the Perfect Game Top 25 and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Poll, and No. 13 in the Baseball America Top 25 are the current rankings for Oregon State.
The D1Baseball poll is used by the Oregonian/OregonLive.com to determine rankings.
The Beavers (30-9) are outside the top five in most major surveys for the first time since February 26. However, this is not surprising after a difficult week.
The Beavers opened the season with a win over the Nevada Wolf Pack on Tuesday. However, the squad lost its spark, the bullpen blew late leads, and the defense made costly mistakes as they went winless.
Oregon State hasn’t lost four straight games since May 2022, making this its longest losing run since then.
The fact that the Beavers had leads or late-game ties in all four of their losses—while Nevada and Cal teased Oregon State with three walk-off ninth-inning victories—makes things even more aggravating for OSU supporters.
In Wednesday’s 10-4 defeat to Nevada, the Beavers took the lead in the sixth inning. Their lead in Saturday’s 7-3 seventh inning over Cal was theirs. They also had a 3-2 lead in the sixth inning of Sunday’s series-ending loss to the Bears. In addition, OSU and Cal knotted 8–8 going into the bottom of the ninth inning in their series-opening loss.
But the leads were swallowed up by Oregon State’s bullpen.
After a strong start to his time at Oregon State, Bridger Holmes—who had become a formidable force in the back of the bullpen—had the worst week of his collegiate career, going 0-3, giving up two walk-off home runs.
The closer for the Beavers had a 2-0 record going into the week and had not allowed an earned run all season.
The defense, meanwhile, has made its share of blunders during the losing streak, committing six errors resulting in six unearned runs. Oregon State now ranks second-to-last in the Pac-12 in fielding percentage (.969).
And things don’t get any easier for the Beavers this week. After a Tuesday night tuneup against the Portland Pilots, Oregon State hosts the No. 22 Oregon Ducks in a pivotal three-game rivalry series at Goss Stadium this weekend.
The Beavers will try to avoid the program’s first five-game losing streak since the COVID-shortened 2020 season.
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