Trailing 2-0 with one out in the top of the eighth, Oregon baseball looked dead in the water.
While Conor Harber and Cooper Stiles held the Oregon State offense at bay, the Ducks’ offense was stagnating at a time where the Ducks needed it most. This was Oregon’s do-or-die moment; if the Ducks win their final four games against No. 20 Oregon State and No. 3 UCLA, they’ll make it to the NCAA Tournament, but late into Tuesday’s contest, Oregon seemed to lack any sense of urgency.
Then leadoff hitter Jakob Goldfarb reached on an error from the Beaver shortstop Caleb Hamilton to catalyze the top of the lineup. Austin Grebeck flew out to left field for the second out, but Mitchell Tolman delivered a two-out RBI double to right center off of Beaver reliever Luke Heimlich to get the Ducks on the scoreboard.
Phil Craig-St. Louis converted Tolman’s double with a two-out RBI single of his own to tie the ballgame.
The two teams dueled into the eleventh inning when Scott Heineman led the inning off with a double, moved to third on a fielder’s choice and scored on a pinch hit game-winning sacrifice fly by Kyle Kasser to take a 3-2 lead the Ducks would not surrender.
Oregon (35-22) started the first leg of its crucible with a massive victory in Corvallis, as the win was not just an RPI booster, but also gave the Ducks their first season series win over the Beavers (36-15-1) since the 2012-13 season.
As the Ducks’ winning streak extends to eight games, pitching was again at the forefront of Oregon’s success. Harber’s first start since late April was a promising sight as the junior allowed just one run over four innings. Stiles pitched 2.2 innings, allowing just one run on two hits before the Ducks tied the game up to send it to extra innings.
Oregon’s dominant back-end relievers were flawless yet again. Stephen Nogosek held the Beavers scoreless in his 2.1 inning outing before Garrett Cleavinger (4-2) finished things off in the tenth and eleventh innings to pick up the win.
Oregon State starter Sam Tweedt was carving through Oregon’s lineup in the early going. Tweedt pitched 6.0 shutout innings with just three hits and one walk allowed. Luke Heimlich gave up the two unearned runs in the eighth, then Mitch Hickey (4-1) dropped the decision in the eleventh.
The Ducks will look to continue their winning ways against UCLA on Friday, but beating the Bruins’ ace pitcher James Kaprielian won’t be easy as he is coming off of a nine inning no-hit performance last weekend.
First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. at PK Park and will be televised on the Pac-12 Networks.
Follow Josh Schlichter on Twitter @joshschlichter