Oregon State vs. Auburn: Pitching problems impact Game 1 of Corvallis Super Regionals

Five days after their 7-5 win against Vanderbilt in the regionals, the Oregon State Beavers returned to Goss Stadium to host the Auburn Tigers, who swept their regional at home last weekend.

While the Beavers' bat started the game strong, they — just like the temperature — cooled off as the night went along.

Auburn (41-19) recorded nine hits, including two home runs, to carry a 7-5 victory over Oregon State (47-17) in the Corvallis Super Regionals in front of 4,112 in attendance, marking the third-largest crowd in Goss Stadium history. With the win, the Tigers have won four consecutive games and stand one game away from advancing to the College World Series for the sixth time in school history.

Brody Moore finished the night 3-for-4 with an RBI. Sonny DiChiara had one hit, but it was two-run home run in the first inning.

"I want to tip my cap to Oregon State," Auburn coach Butch Thompson said. "It great seeing a positive fan base engaged in every single pitch of a ballgame.

"Amazing ball club we are competing against. It is one step and it is hard and it should be hard this time of the year."

Pitcher challenges

The Beavers got bad news an hour before Saturday's game. Starting pitcher Cooper Hjerpe was ruled out against Auburn because of an undisclosed illness. Jake Pfennigs, who was supposed to start Sunday, started in Hjerpe's place.

Pfennigs struggled with locating his pitches and didn't make out of the third inning. He pitched 2.2 innings and gave up five runs on four hits while walking four Auburn batters.

The Beavers' bullpen was strong in relief of Pfennigs and only had one earned run the rest of the night. But the first three innings put Oregon State behind the rest of the game.

Auburn starter Trace Bright didn't make it out of the first inning. He went 0.2 innings after allowing four runs, and three hits while walking three batters.

"We had problems out of the gate, but Tommy Sheehan and Carson Skipper were great tonight," Thompson said. "We were able to do a little bit offensively after getting off to a tough start.

Oregon State coach Mitch Canham said after Saturday's game that the plan was for Hjerpe to start Game 2 Sunday night after he just wasn't feeling like himself during pregame warmups Saturday.

"I figured the best thing to do was hold off another day," he said.

Early runs

It didn't take long before the game saw its first runs. Auburn's DiChiara hit a homer in the first inning, putting the score at 2-0.

Then Garret Forrester hit a home run, a three-run shot to left field to put the score at 3-2.

Auburn answered back in the top of the second by scoring two runs to tie it up 4-4 after a single by Nate LaRue and a Mike Bello ground out that scored Kason Howell.

The Tigers continued scoring as they took a 5-4 lead in the third on a sacrifice fly by Brody Moore.

Following a scoreless fourth inning, Auburn extended its lead in the fifth to 6-4 on Bobby Peirce's solo homer.

While Auburn gave up four runs in the first, its pitching improved as the night went on. The Tigers only allowed four hits during innings two through seven.

The game remained at 6-4 until the eighth when Bello's single and a throwing error to second base by DJ Carpenter put Auburn runners on first and third with no outs. While Oregon State was able to record a double-play on Cole Foster's ground out, Bello scored, which made the score 7-4 Tigers.

Oregon State had one last chance in the ninth. The Beavers were able to cut their deficit to 7-5 after a Jacob Melton double to left field scored Justin Boyd. But with a runner on second base, Gavin Logan struck out to end the game.

Mitchell Verburg had a pretty simple message for his teammates heading into an elimination game.

"No one is going to hand it to you," the Oregon State pitcher said."You gotta earn it. You gotta go out there and grab. It is not a challenge: it is an opportunity to do something special."

Up next

Sunday's game between Oregon State and Auburn will start at 7 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN2. The Beavers will need to win to force a winner-take-all game Monday.

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

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Oregon State vs. Auburn: Pitching problems impact Super Regionals