It took six innings, but the Oregon State Beavers’ bats finally woke up.
Perhaps they were just living on island time.
Oregon State erased a scoreless tie by plating runs in three of final four innings, riding a late scoring barrage to defeat the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors, 7-3, Monday night at Les Murakami Stadium in Honolulu.
It delivered a series victory for the No. 10 Beavers (35-12), who won three of the four meetings against the Rainbow Warriors (29-17).
But it didn’t come without a few innings of anxiety for OSU fans, who labored through another late-night scoring drought. The Beavers produced two singles and drew five walks over the first five innings, but could not not buy a hit with runners on base, as they struggled to fight out of their offensive rut.
When the teams charged into the sixth inning in a scoreless tie, the Oregon State lineup had stretched it scoreless streak to 17 innings. Finally, however, the offense came alive with two outs — and a little luck — in the sixth.
When Trent Caraway swung-and-missed on a 1-2 pitch with two outs, the sixth seemingly ended with another whimper for the Beavers. But the ball sailed toward the backstop and Caraway reached first base on a wild pitch.
One batter later, freshman Carson McEntire ended the scoring slump, hammering a double to left-center field to send Caraway home with the first run of the game. Then, after Easton Talt drew a walk, Aiva Arquette smacked an RBI single to right field to score McEntire and give OSU a 2-0 lead.
All of a sudden, the Beavers found a little mojo.
They went on to mash six hits and draw four free passes over the final four innings, ending the four-game series with a little positive offensive momentum.
Wilson Weber fueled the fireworks, belting two late-game home runs — a solo shot in the seventh and a three-run blast in the eighth — finishing 2 for 3 with four RBIs, two runs scored and a walk. And McEntire, who made his seventh start of the season and first in right field, had an inspiring performance, going 3 for 3 with two RBIs, two runs scored and a walk. The freshman outfielder opened a four-run eighth inning with a one-out solo home run.
The offense was given time to awake thanks to a dominant start by Wyatt Queen. The sophomore right-hander allowed just one run on four hits in his longest and sharpest outing of the season. He tossed a career-high 6 1/3 innings and recorded a career-high seven strikeouts, facing the minimum in four different innings.
Queen, who made his fourth start of the season, improved to 3-1.
Next up: The Beavers host the Portland Pilots Wednesday night in a midweek matchup at Goss Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 5:35 p.m.
(Update: Wednesday night’s game has been canceled, so the Beavers will next play when they open a three-game series at the Iowa Hawkeyes on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.)
— Joe Freeman | jfreeman@oregonian.com | 503-294-5183 | @BlazerFreeman | @freemanjoe.bsky.social | Subscribe to The Oregonian/OregonLive newsletters and podcasts for the latest news and top stories.