Oregon State baseball advances to NCAA Super Regional after victory over Vanderbilt

Following a devastating loss 8-1 Sunday, the Oregon State Beavers were trying to dust themselves off by defeating a red-hot Vanderbilt Commodores in a winner-take-all game in the Corvallis Regional.

After a four-hour thriller Monday at at OSU's Goss Stadium, the Beavers will move on to the next round of the NCAA Baseball Tournament.

Oregon State (47-16) recorded 11 hits as they edged past Vanderbilt (39-23) 7-6 to advance to the Super Regionals next weekend. The Beavers will play the Auburn Tigers, who defeated the UCLA Bruins 11-4 to advance Monday.

"We showed tremendous amount of heart today," Oregon State coach Mitch Canham said. "We didn't have to saw a whole lot, everyone knew what the mission was for today."

"I know when they showed up at the yard today, you could see a different look from each and every one of them. Confidence raising, reliance. All of our pitcher did a great job.

"It seemed like nonstop energy and push. I couldn't be prouder of these guys at this moment."

While Oregon State shortstop Kyle Dernedde had a rough day defensive as he committed three errors, he was a catalyst at the plate as he registered three hits and three RBIs. Jacob Melton and Jake Dukart also recorded two hits in the victory.

Unlike Sunday, where there was very little offense, there was a lot of scoring from both teams Monday. Both teams went with a reliever to open the game and Vanderbilt's Christian Little nor Oregon State's Jaren Hunter lasted more than 3.1 innings.

The significant difference was the way each team got its runs. Vanderbilt capitalized on Oregon State miscues, while the Beavers got their runs from knocking the ball out of the yard. Oregon State hit three home runs, which accounted for five of its seven runs.

Sunday game:Oregon State loses to Vanderbilt, will play winner-take-all on Monday in Corvallis Regional

Also, in comparison, the Beavers batted .306 for the entire game. The Commodores hit .161, which was down from when they batted .314 in the 8-1 victory over the Beavers on Sunday.

Oregon State defeated a Vanderbilt program that has previously went to two consecutive College World Series and won a national championship in 2019.

Although this year's Commodores team wasn't as successful as year's past, they never stopped believing they could win until the final out.

"If you ask these kids, they thought they were going to win the game," Vanderbilt coach Tim Corbin said. "Even when they went up three runs, that wasn't deflating at all."

"They were riding with some confidence and they were playing well. We just ran out of time. But not one part of me thought we were going to lose today. Not one ounce of me thought we were losing today.

"But as you get older, you understand it happens, but it is a tough pill to swallow."

Oregon State scored their first run of the game on the first at-bat. Justin Boyd hit a leadoff moonshot home run to left-center field to give Oregon State the early 1-0 lead.

Jaren Hunter, who was the Beavers' opening pitcher, was superb in the early going. He struck out five out of the first six batters he faced.

Hunter was cruising until he ran into problems in the fourth inning. After walking Javier Vaz, Spencer Jones hit a two-run homer off Hunter that gave the Commodores a 2-1 lead. Two batters later, Hunter's day was over after 70 pitches.

Hunter pitched just 3.1 innings as he gave up two hits and two runs while striking out five batters.

Oregon State tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fourth when Kyle Dernedde hit a single up the middle that brought Jake Dukart home. The tie wouldn't last long as Vanderbilt re-took the lead in the top of the fifth.

With runners on second and third base, the Commodores went for a double steal attempt. But as catcher Gavin Logan's throw to second base was off and bounced away from the glove of Dernedde. That allowed Enrique Bradfield Jr. to score from third base, which gave Vanderbilt a 3-2 lead. Then a throwing error by Dernedde allowed Vaz to move up to third base.

The seesaw battle continued as Oregon State scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth. The Beavers took a 4-3 lead on Jacob Melton's two-run homer to left-center field. They also extended their lead to 6-3 when Dernedde singled to center field scoring Dukart and Logan.

That knocked Vanderbilt reliever Patrick Reilly out of the game as he gave up five earned runs on six hits. The Commodores cut the deficit to 6-5 on an error by Dernedde and a Bradfield single to left field. In the seventh, Vanderbilt tied the game 6-6 on Hewett's sacrifice fly.

Oregon State answered in the bottom of the seventh with third baseman Matthew Gretler's solo home run to left-center field. That gave the Beavers a 7-6 lead.

Neither team scored in the eighth as Beavers starting pitcher Cooper Hjerpe came in the top of the eighth to record the six out save off of two days rest.

Hjerpe was sharp as he struck out five batters and closed the door on Commodores comeback, including Matthew Polk, to win the game.

Corbin said he wasn't surprised when Oregon State went with its best pitcher to win the game.

"If you're going to beat Vanderbilt, you better put in your best," Corbin said. "He's good, he's funky and he's certainly he one of the reason why they're successful."

Now the Beavers will take the next the few days and get ready for an Auburn team that also hosted its regional before defeating a UCLA opponent Oregon State is familiar with. The players believe having the regional at Goss Stadium will provide a significant advantage.

"With those fans, you want to keep everything here," Gretler said. "The road gotta go through Goss to get to Omaha and that's what we wanted to keep doing."

Contact Register-Guard sportswriter Antwan Staley at astaley@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @antwanstaley.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: OSU baseball beats Vanderbilt advances to NCAA Super Regional