CORVALLIS, Ore. – Travis Bazzana and Jacob Melton homered, and Cooper Hjerpe struck out six batters in 5 2/3 innings as Oregon State beat Auburn 4-3 to avoid elimination Sunday night in the NCAA baseball tournament’s best-of-three Corvallis Super Regional.
The teams play again Monday, with the winner advancing to the College World Series, which starts Friday in Omaha, Nebraska. The 7:30 p.m. matchup of No. 14 overall seed Auburn (41-20) and No. 3 Oregon State will be televised by ESPN2.
Auburn, which won 7-5 in Saturday’s series opener, had scored 58 runs in its previous four games. The Tigers’ five hits Sunday were their fewest since they also had five in a 6-3 loss to Kentucky on May 21.
Matthew Gretler led off the fifth inning with a single, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Kyle Dernedde and scored on a throwing error when Justin Boyd dropped a bunt down the third-base line for a base hit, giving Oregon State a 3-2 lead. In the sixth, Bazzana drew a two-out walk, stole second and advanced to third on a wild pitch before he scored on a single by Jake Dukart to make it 4-2.
Hjerpe (11-2), who was originally scheduled to start Saturday but was scratched due to an unspecified illness, gave up three runs on three hits with two walks. Ben Ferrer gave up two hits with no walks and three strikeouts in 3 1/3 scoreless innings of relief to earn his third save of the season.