There were runs aplenty in the early innings at Goss Stadium on Tuesday night between the two top college baseball teams in Oregon. No. 17 Oregon visited No. 19 Oregon State for a non-conference midweek matchup, and battled back and forth through the first four innings. The first eight half-innings all saw runs scored, but it was the Beavers who ultimately prevailed with an 11-6 victory as the Ducks ran out of responses.

Drew Cowley’s power surge continued in the top of the first, as he gave Oregon the early lead with a two-run homer. Cowley had only hit five total home runs in four years of college ball entering this season — he’s now hit five in his last six games and 11 on the year.

The Beavers got one back in the bottom of the first against regular Tuesday starter Jackson Pace, with hits from Travis Bazzana and Micah McDowell. Pace was able to strand McDowell at third base with a pair of strikeouts to hold the score at 2-1.

The Ducks’ offense knocked starter Justin Thorsteinson out of the game in the second, as they loaded the bases on an infield hit and a pair of walks. Reliever David Grewe came in with one out and gave up another infield hit — this one a liner off his leg from the bat of Rikuu Nishida. With Oregon up 3-1 and a chance to blow it open, Colby Shade and Cowley both made outs to strand the bases loaded.

Pace retired the first two batters in the bottom of the second. But the Ducks’ failure to capitalize quickly caught up with them.

Pace hit the next two batters, prompting a team meeting at the mound with the top of the order coming up. Bazzana hit a soft ground ball to second base that Gavin Grant completely whiffed on, which allowed a run to score. It was the second Tuesday in the last three weeks where Grant has committed a costly run-scoring error.

The ugly mistake proved even more detrimental, as Garret Forrester followed with a two-run single to put Oregon State on top, 4-3. It was three unearned runs for the Beavs, all coming with two outs.

The early dogfighting wasn’t over yet. Drew and Tanner Smith led off the third with back-to-back doubles — though D. Smith had to hold up in case it was caught, so he only got to third. Jacob Walsh and Bennett Thompson both failed to cash in, and Oregon State was on the precipice of escaping.

But Bryce Boettcher would have none of that. Oregon’s right fielder, fresh off the end of the spring football season, worked a patient and composed at-bat after drawing a walk his first time up. He eventually lined one to right field, putting Oregon back on top 5-4. 

And once again, the Beavers responded. They erupted for four consecutive two-out doubles from Dallas Macias, Tanner Smith — not to be confused with Oregon’s Tanner Smith — Kyle Dernedde and Bazzana. It jumped the Beavers out to an 8-5 lead in the third.

Forrester broke the doubles streak with an RBI single, making it five consecutive hits to extend Oregon State’s lead to 9-5. That finally ended Pace’s evening. He gave up nine runs (six earned) on eight hits in 2 2/3 innings while throwing 67 pitches. Turner Spoljaric got the final out of the third inning, which came an hour and 36 minutes into the game.

Facing a four-run hump now, the Ducks immediately chipped back into the deficit. Nishida singled, and Shade doubled him in, which knocked Grewe out of the game. Shade and Cowley both ran into outs on the basepaths to stop the scoring there — and ultimately put an end to Oregon’s scoring on the night.

The Beavers pounced back with another one, as Mason Guerra led off the bottom of the fourth with a homer. It was the eighth consecutive half-inning with at least a run.

Oregon finally ended that streak in the top of the fifth. T. Smith hit a leadoff single, but Thompson grounded into an inning-ending double play against left-hander Tyler Mejia. Spoljaric induced his own inning-ending double play in the bottom half, getting the teams through a quick fifth inning.

Guerra put another run on the board in the bottom of the sixth, hitting his second leadoff homer of the game against Spoljaric. The young Canadian ended up going 3 1/3 innings in relief, giving up just the two solo bombs to Guerra.

Six-foot-nine freshman Dylan McShane made his first appearance for Oregon since April 9, which was also against Oregon State. He returned to action with a five-pitch seventh inning.

The Ducks threatened in the eighth with hits from Walsh and pinch-hitter Anson Aroz. With Grant due up, Oregon opted for its third consecutive pinch-hitter in Carate Garate. Garate and Nishida both struck out as Oregon came up empty again.

McShane led off the bottom of the eighth by issuing a four-pitch walk, so the Ducks brought in Jacob Hughes to replace him. Hughes issued a walk but grinded through to end the inning unscathed, with Shade making a diving catch for the third out.

The Ducks’ offense went down quickly in the ninth, as the five-run deficit proved to be too much to overcome. Ultimately, it was a fairly inconsequential loss that didn’t count to their conference record, but Oregon State still took three out of four in the season series.

Oregon (30-14, 13-8 Pac-12) will look to bounce back in Los Angeles against USC (25-17, 11-10 Pac-12) this weekend, starting Friday at 6:30 p.m.