Pitching seizes top billing as Beavers bury Bears
Senior closer Albert Roblez has been lights out in the Oregon State bullpen with an 0.79 ERA. He is leading the country with nine saves in 10 appearances this season (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)
CORVALLIS — Oregon State scored 29 runs — 19 in Game 2 — in its three-game sweep of the Mercer Bears at Goss Stadium over the weekend. But the Beavers’ calling card is pitching, which earned the spotlight with a display of dominance in the series.
OSU pitchers struck out 54 Mercer batters in 27 innings. That’s two K’s per inning. It doesn’t get much better than that.
The Beavers got 17 of the punch-outs Sunday in a 3-1 win in which their first run was unearned and another came via wild pitch. They had eight hits but only one-extra-base knock, a double by AJ Singer to lead off the sixth inning — and he was stranded there.
“We were very quiet today on offense,” OSU coach Mitch Canham said after the Beavers, ranked between 13th and 16th in the various national polls, won their seventh straight game to improve to 21-5. “Not exactly what we’re looking for, but we were coming off a day where we scored 19 runs. I am not looking too deep into it.”
But Canham has to like what he is seeing from his pitching corps.
On Sunday, starter Eric Segura provided 5 1/3 innings of five-hit, one-run ball. Isaac Yeager, Wyatt Queen and Albert Roblez followed with a combined 3 2/3 innings of one-hit, scoreless relief. Mercer came to Goss with a sparkling 21-4 record and a team batting average of .319. The Bears blasted five home runs but went 15 for 94 (.159) in the three games. They don’t see this kind of pitching facing the likes of Wofford, East Tennessee State and The Citadel in the Southern Conference.
“Hats off to our pitching staff,” Canham said. “As many strikeouts as they tallied against a really good offensive team was very impressive. Big-time focus, executing game plans, winning (counts of) 0-0 and 1-1, getting a lot of whiff and letting the defense work when they needed to.”
Oregon State rallied from a 5-3 deficit to win the opener 7-5, then exploded for 16 runs over the final four innings in Saturday’s 19-2 rout of the visitors. The Beavers collected 13 hits, drew three walks and were hit by pitch an incredible eight times.
On Sunday, right-hander Yeager was spectacular in his 2 1/3 innings, striking out six batters, including the first five he faced. The 6-6, 255-pound senior transfer from Washington used “mostly sinker/slider, then being able to mix a couple of four-seam (fastballs) in there to freeze them,” he said. “Pretty much everything I had was working today.”
Senior right-hander Isaac Yeager had his best performance of the season in Sunday’s series-closing 3-1 win over Mercer, notching six strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings (courtesy Dominic Cusimano)
Roblez, a transfer from Long Beach State, came on in the ninth and allowed a single and walk before notching his ninth save in 10 appearances this season. The 5-11, 220-pound senior right-hander entered the weekend tied for the nation’s lead with seven saves. Now he has nine. Does he think about being the national leader at season’s end?
“Hopefully that happens, but not really,” Roblez said. “I just want to keep doing my job, doing what I’m doing. I just take it game by game. I try not to think about stats or look at anything like that.”
OSU pitching coach Rich Dorman entered the season thinking he had one of the deepest staffs in the country, and his instincts look good from results as the Beavers near the midway point of the 2026 campaign. The staff has a collective ERA of 3.19, having yielded 174 hits with 101 walks and 346 strikeouts in 234 innings, with a stingy .207 opponents batting average. Those numbers are significantly better than the ones posted by the staff of last year’s College World Series team, which had a 4.24 ERA and a .234 opponents batting average.
The Dean of Portland Sports is now on BlueSky.
The weekend starting rotation, led by sophomore right-hander Dax Whitney, has been dynamite, The 6-5, 220-pound Blackfoot, Idaho, native is 4-0 with a 1.55 ERA, having yielded just 22 hits with 14 walks and 78 strikeouts in 40 2/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .157 against him.
Saturday starter Ethan Kleinschmit is 4-2 with a 3.93 ERA, giving up 27 hits with 12 walks and 50 strikeouts in 32 innings. The 6-3, 205-pound junior left-hander from Mount Angel has an opponents batting average of .214.
Segura, a 6-2, 215-pound junior right-hander from Soledad, Calif., is 2-1 with a 1.69 ERA, yielding 28 hits with 14 walks and 41 strikeouts in 32 innings. His OBA is .241.
Four relievers have stood out, featuring Roblez, who has allowed only eight hits with two walks and 24 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings, with an ERA of 0.79 and an OBA of .195. Yeager, who appears to be winning the set-up role, is 4-1 with a 2.16 ERA, having given up nine hits with seven walks and 22 strikeouts in 12 appearances and 16 2/3 innings. Opponents are hitting .161 off him.
Queen, a 6-2, 216-pound sophomore right-hander from Marysville, Wash., has been strong in middle relief. The 6-2, 215-pound Queen has a 2.45 ERA, allowing 18 hits with five walks and 31 strikeouts in 13 appearances and 18.1 innings. His OBA is .191.
Another consistent contributor out of the bullpen is Tanner Douglas, who appears on his way to Comeback Player of the Year in the program after sporting a 13.85 ERA in 13 innings last season after a transfer from Portland. The 6-2, 210-pound senior southpaw has been nearly flawless in seven appearances and 6 2/3 innings, yielding only one hit and no runs with five walks and 15 strikeouts. His OBA is a spectacular 0.48.
The other notable is fireballer Zach Edwards, the 6-2, 230-pound sophomore from Riverton, Utah, who got off to a terrible start this season. In his last two appearances, though, the right-hander has thrown 3 2/3 innings with no hits, no walks and seven strikeouts. “Electric,” Canham said.
“We have tons of really good options,” said Canham, adding with a smile, “the gentleman in the coffee shop this morning told me a few other guys he thought could close games for us.”
The depth has taken pressure off Roblez.
“We have diversity in the bullpen, guys using different arm slots,” he said. “It makes hitters uncomfortable. It’s great not having to go out there some weekends and saving my arm. I love our bullpen.”
“It is pretty tough to beat,” Yeager added. “With most (opponents), you are trying to get through the starter and break through (against relievers). We have really good starters and a plethora of guys in the bullpen. If our offense keeps going like it is, we are in a really good spot.”
Dorman would love to have highly regarded freshman Mason Pike available, but he is back on the injured list after missing much of the early season with an oblique injury. The 5-11, 210-pound right-hander from Puyallup, Wash., exited after 10 pitches in Oregon State’s 12-4 victory at Southern Cal last Tuesday. Canham said Pike’s current injury isn’t to the oblique but declined to offer details about the status of the two-way player who is focusing on pitching for now.
“Mason was out there taking ground balls before the game today,” the OSU skipper said. “He is like, ‘Whatever I can do, I will do it.’ We will see what the following days bring for him.”
Oregon State’s defense has been stellar, with only 14 errors in 26 games. A year ago, the Beavers had 48 errors in 65 games. Shortstops Cooper Vance and Tyler Inge aren’t of the quality of last year’s shortstop, first-round draft pick Aiva Arquette, but are both excellent fielders who have combined for only three errors so far.
Singer, who won a national Gold Glove at second base as a junior last season, has been flawless in 56 chances in ’26. The Beavers have turned only 13 double-plays, compared to 51 for the full 2025 season. But opportunities have been more scarce with the large number of strikeouts the pitchers have provided. Senior Easton Talt has been money with no errors and 24 put-outs in centerfield.
A year ago, the Beavers hit .290 with 107 home runs and averaged 7.4 runs per game. The ’26 club is hitting .267 with 27 round-trippers and 6.4 runs per contest. Only one regular, senior designated hitter Bryce Hubbard, is batting better than .300 (.329), and he leads the team with five homers. But eight other regulars are hitting .255 or better, including Singer, who has an 11-game hit streak in which he has gone 15 for 41 (.367.)
Freshman left-fielder Josh Proctor, a 6-5 235-pound Altadena, Calif., native, is hitting .288 with seven doubles, four homers and 18 RBIs. Sophomore right-fielder Adam Haight, who played sparingly a year ago, is batting .284 with a .402 on-base percentage. Senior catcher Jacob Galloway, a transfer from Texas A&M, is hitting .299 and has struck out only four times in 108 plate appearances. Sophomore third baseman Paul Vasquez is hitting .282 with four round-trippers.
The lineup has been solid except at first base, where senior Jacob Krieg has struggled at the plate, hitting .180 with 25 strikeouts in 71 plate appearances. In recent games, Canham has used freshman Ethan Porter and junior Bryson Glassgo, a junior who played shortstop last season at Clackamas CC, at first.
Canham said he liked what he saw from the Beavers against Mercer.
“We knew going into the weekend it was going to be a tough matchup,” he said. “Our guys handled it extremely well. I am glad the guys continue to respond. We have played in tight games; we’ve played in wider-margin games with consistency of how we are going about our work. Also, the guys are understanding their capabilities. We are trending in the right direction, and I still think we have a lot more in the tank.”
Oregon State’s RPI has risen to No. 10 heading into a very busy slate of six games in eight days, beginning Tuesday at home against Washington (11-15 overall, 5-9 in Big Ten play). After that comes a three-game series at Lamar (17-11, 7-6 in Southland action), followed by games next Monday and Tuesday at Washington State (11-15, 6-11 in the Mountain West).
“It is a big challenge for us, but our guys are up to it,” Canham said. “Each game we play is the most important game of the year. That is the way we approach it. It doesn’t matter what day of the week or which opponent, they are going to bring their best, and we need to bring our best.”
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