Easy does it as Beavers breeze to Regional crown

In only his second career start, redshirt freshman James DeCremer pitched five innings of two-hit, shutout ball and got the win in Oregon State’s 9-0 romp past Southern Cal for the Corvallis Regional title

Updated 6/5/2025 3:35 PM

Web Supervisor’s Note: This story was scheduled to be posted on Tuesday. The Web Supervisor was under the weather, and and took a sick day. To our great readers, I apologize for the delay

CORVALLIS — It may have seemed like strictly a formality, but it wasn’t.

Oregon State still had to beat Southern Cal Monday to win the Corvallis Regional.

After what OSU had done in its previous three games — including a 14-1 beat-down of the Trojans Sunday night — there weren’t many who thought the local nine was going to lose the finale.

The Beavers were taking nothing for granted, though. If a 9-0 victory can be workmanlike, this was it. They got standout pitching, turned five double-plays, belted four home runs and looked the part of a threat to win a national championship.

“I know this is all part of the plan,” coach Mitch Canham said after Oregon State (45-13-1) won the fourth of four elimination games it faced in the Regional. “There are still more good times coming.”

OSU, the No. 8 national seed, will square off with No. 9 Florida State in a best-of-three Super Regional next weekend in Corvallis.

After an opening-game 6-4 loss to unsung Saint Mary’s on Friday, the Beavers’ season was teetering on the brink of extinction. Canham sounded no alarms. Though it would require winning four straight elimination games, he figured a bounce-back was imminent.

“Yeah, let’s do it,” he said then. “Why not?”

Oregon State started with a 7-2 win over TCU, eliminating the Horned Frogs. Next came a 20-3 retribution win over Saint Mary’s, sending the Gaels home to the Bay Area. In the second game Sunday, the opponent was USC, sitting pretty at 2-0 and needing only one more win to advance to a Super Regional. The Beavers took care of them with a shellacking that must have left doubt in the minds of the Trojans.

That brings us to Monday. The way the Beavers played in all three phases — offense, defense and pitching — it seems SC didn’t stand a chance.

“Everyone looks at the adversity we faced right out of the chute,” Canham said. “We looked at it like, ‘What a great opportunity.’

“If you are going to make an incredible story, you have to make something that people are going to be inspired by.”

Beaver Nation was duly inspired. In the splendid sunshine at Goss Stadium on Monday afternoon, a sellout crowd of 4,383 offered standing ovation after standing ovation to the Beavers. When it was over, the players gathered in front of the stands and waved as much of the throng stayed at their seats for a final salute — until next weekend.

It figured that Eric Segura — who threw only 28 pitches before being pulled from Friday’s game in the first inning — might be Monday’s starter. Instead it was James DeCremer, a redshirt freshman making the second start of his career. The 6-2, 205-pound right-hander from Scottsdale, Ariz., threw five innings of two-hit shutout ball with two walks and six strikeouts, using a career-high 71 pitches.

Pitching coach Rich Dorman called DeCremer in the morning to alert him that he would be getting the start.

“I just wanted it to be like another day,” DeCremer said. “Got an Acai bowl. Did my meditation as Zak (Taylor, director of Beaver baseball development) taught us. Went to the field a little bit early. Stretched out. Good day.”

When Canham watched DeCremer pitch in the Area Code Games as a high schooler, “he had electricity coming out of his arm.” But DeCremer sat out last season at OSU while rehabbing from a spinal injury suffered during his senior year in high school.

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“When I was in Phoenix rehabbing, I was worried that I would never come back,” he said. “This year, with the guys around me, the confidence returned.”

“I wasn’t surprised with what James did today,” Canham said. “I thought it would be a good spot for him.”

OSU coach Mitch Canham said after the opening 6-4 loss to Saint Mary’s, “we felt the pressure was on everybody else”

Meanwhile, Oregon State got a run in the first, then three in the third on back-to-back home runs by Aiva Arquette and Gavin Turley. For Arquette, it was a two-run blast, his 18th of the season — and the first in front of the home crowd. Then Turley — OSU’s career leader in home runs and RBIs — kissed the sky with a solo round-tripper to tie Arquette for the team lead this season.

The Beavers added a run in the fourth and another in the fifth, the latter on a bomb high and far over the left-field fence by Trent Caraway for a solo homer and a 6-0 advantage. No surprise there. The sophomore third baseman homered in each of OSU’s five games in the tournament, earning him the Regional’s Most Outstanding Player award. In the five games, Caraway was 9 for 17 (.529) with seven walks, nine runs scored and 10 RBIs.

“TC is a special hitter,” Canham said. “He was about as dialed in as I have seen a guy.”

Segura came on in the sixth and provided three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with three walks and five strikeouts.

“That showed a lot of heart,” Canham said.

Segura said pitching coach Rich Dorman told him after Friday’s game to expect to pitch on Monday, should the Beavers get there.

“I was glad to get the opportunity to come back and help the team win,” Segura said. “After that first day, it would have sucked to leave it that way. Seeing how we played, our backs against the wall, and having that fight inspired me. It made me realize, we don’t want (the season) to end.”

Eric Segura

First baseman Tyce Peterson, who had been sizzling hot at the plate on Sunday — 7 for 10 — told Canham before Monday’s game he couldn’t go due to the effects of shin splints. That gave a start to Jacob Krieg, the 6-5, 240-pound junior who lost his starting job to Peterson late in the regular season after an extended slump.

Krieg came through with a big performance, contributing a walk, a single to left and a towering three-run homer in the eighth, his 13th four-bagger of the season. Just before he hit it, assistant coach Ryan Gipson called timeout to confer with the slugger.

“I want you to sit on a breaking ball, and I want you to hit it as hard as you can,” Gipson told Krieg.

“And he did just that,” Canham said.

Krieg was also on the receiving end of five double-plays started either by Arquette at shortstop or AJ Singer at second base.

“They make it look so easy, so routine with balls up the middle, six-hole, whatever it is,” Segura said. “As a pitcher, having that comfortability is like no other. You know if you can get contact, they are going to get them out.”

“How about Singer?” Canham asked. “Tell me he is not a gold glove. He has been tremendous all year.”

Monday’s shutout was the Beavers’ first in the NCAA Tournament since 2018. The 20 runs against Saint Mary’s were the most they have ever scored in the postseason. After the loss to the Gaels, Oregon State totaled 56 hits in four games and outscored the opposition 50-6. In the five games of the Regional, the Beavers mashed 15 home runs.

“The first week of the season in Surprise (Ariz.), we started off super hot, and it felt like we were never going to stop hitting,” DeCremer said. “Then we had some adversity. Now it has switched back on, and it is the most fun thing to be a part of. I am so inspired by all the guys who have taken their lumps and taken good ABs and are hitting the ball really hard.”

In two games, the Beavers hammered the Trojans by a collective 23-1.

“The lineup, one through nine, they are coming at you,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “It is a complete offense. (Sunday) they got us with small ball. Today they got some big swings, which they did (Sunday), too.”

The OSU pitching crew deserves plaudits, too. Over the last four games, the group yielded 27 hits and six runs.

“I love the depth on our pitching staff,” Canham said. “Every guy we put in there did his job well.”

The Regional’s ending was remarkable when considering the beginning.

“After that first game, everyone was upset,” Canham said. “But I knew the character of these guys. They knew it as well. They were going to wake up the next day and go to work and not let it get them. They took that warrior mentality. There was laser focus.

“If anything, that played to our advantage. You come in as the eight seed and you have to win. We played tight. Our emotions were tight. After that, it was, well, do you want to go home? Nope, we want to stay here.

“From that point, we felt the pressure was on everybody else. It is all part of a really cool story that is going to get written at the end of the year about what these guys have accomplished.”

There was some celebration in the Beavers’ locker room following Monday’s game.

“A lot of water getting thrown around, pictures being taken,” Canham said.

The team’s aspirations, however, extend much higher than a Regional championship.

“It is not sit back and relax,” the OSU coach said. “We are going to keep climbing.”

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