CORVALLIS, Ore. — Trevor Larnach and Adley Rutschman hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning and No. 3 national seed Oregon State beat Minnesota 8-1 in the first game of a best-of-three super regional on Friday.
Larnach, selected 20th by the Minnesota Twins in the Major League Baseball draft earlier this week, finished 2 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Rutschman added an RBI double followed by Michael Gretler’s RBI triple in the seventh for the Beavers (48-10-1).
“Trevor and Adley got us off to a great start there and got us some momentum,” Oregon State coach Pat Casey said. “They were outstanding. That’s a good way to start.”
OSU scored one run in the second and two more in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Jack Anderson and Zak Taylor and an RBI single by Steven Kwan.
Oregon State starter Luke Heimlich (16-1) went 8 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts and seven hits. He left the game to a standing ovation in his last start at Goss Stadium.
Heimlich, the two-time Pac-12 pitcher of the year, was not selected in the draft. The senior left-hander pleaded guilty as a teenager to a charge of molesting a 6-year-old relative. Recently he has denied the charge and said the guilty plea was the result of poor legal advice.
“I’m just focused on this part of the season,” Heimlich said. “I’ve got more games to play here. They’re not taking the jersey off my back yet so I’m just focused on the game’s I still get to play.”
Minnesota (44-14), the No. 10 national seed, scored on a home run by Toby Hanson in the eighth.
“It was an uphill climb after it was 3-0 against us against a great pitcher,” Minnesota coach John Anderson said. “Heimlich did a great job of commanding the fastball in the bottom of the zone and in and out. He pitched outstanding. You give him a lead like that in their ballpark and you’ve got an uphill climb.”
UW beats Cal State Fullerton
Levi Jordan was 3 for 4 with two RBIs to extend his hitting streak to eight games and Washington beat Cal State Fullerton 8-5 on Friday in the Huskies’ first NCAA Tournament super regional.
Washington scored two runs in the fifth inning — including Jordan’s sacrifice fly — for Fullerton’s only deficit this postseason. Freshman Kaiser Weiss hit a two-run double in the ninth after entering as a defensive replacement.
Washington (34-23) came in 0-8 against Fullerton.
Washington freshman starter Lucas Knowles struck out three while allowing five hits and one earned run. Closer Alex Hardy entered in the seventh and slated Game 2 starter Joe DeMers pitched the ninth.
Fullerton (35-24) was undone by five errors.
Sahid Valenzuela hit a two-out RBI triple in the seventh and scored on Jace Chamberlin’s single to pull Fullerton to 6-5. Fullerton left the bases loaded in the eighth.
