FROM CBD NEWS SOURCE
OMAHA, Neb. – After taking a loss to Mississippi State earlier in the week, Oregon State’s Matt Boyd bounced back to shut out Indiana for the first time this season with a 1-0 win for the Beavers on Wednesday night at TD Ameritrade Park.
OSU improves to 52-12 on the season and 2-1 in the College World Series while Indiana ends its season at 49-16. The Beavers will face a CWS undefeated Mississippi State on Friday at 2 p.m. CT in a win-or-go-home matchup.
After getting runners on base for the first three innings straight, Oregon State pushed a run across – the only run it would need – in the fourth. Kavin Keyes led off the inning with a single up the middle. Ryan Barnes squared around to show bunt, but he pulled back and hammered a double down the leftfield line past a charging Dustin DeMuth to give the Beavers runners on second and third. Jake Rodriguez followed with a sacrifice fly to rightfield, and Keyes tagged up on the play to give OSU a 1-0 lead.
Indiana hitters struggled to make an adjustment on Boyd’s breaking ball, and through four innings, seven of 12 Hoosiers struck out, including five straight – Boyd’s longest strikeout streak of the season. Sam Travis and Justin Cureton reached base on walks in the first and third innings, but both were picked off attempting to steal second.
In the fifth, Michael Basil broke Boyd’s no-hitter and drove a one-out single to rightfield. DeMuth tacked on the Hoosiers’ second hit when he beat out a sacrifice bunt attempt, but the inning ended on a flyout and popout, and OSU held on to its 1-0 lead.
After the fifth, Boyd went on to retire the final 11 of 14 batters of the game. He improves to 11-4 and finished his fourth complete game of the season. Boyd allowed four hits, three walks and struck out 11 – one short of his career high.
Indiana’s Aaron Slegers (9-2) pitched his first complete game of the season, but took the loss. He held the Beavers to just one run (earned) on seven hits, two walks and struck out five. Slegers retired the final 14 of 16 after the Beavers scored in the fourth.
