Courtesy of Nevada Athletics
RENO, Nev. – Scott Van Pelt’s line, “Reno. It gets weird,” applied in full Wednesday night at Don Weir Field at Peccole Park. Nevada fought its way back from a six-run deficit, with JR Freethy’s solo homer to lead off the ninth walking off an 11-10 comeback win over No. 4 Oregon State.
It’s Nevada’s highest-ranked victory since twice defeating the Beavers, then ranked second, in 2019.
Oregon State closer Bridger Holmes came on to start the bottom of the ninth, and Freethy drove his second offering deep down the line in right and out, sparking the celebration and Nevada’s third walk-off victory of 2024.
It was the first earned run, and only the second overall, surrendered over 20-plus innings this season by Holmes, who fell to 2-1.
It was a four-run bottom of the eighth, helped by two Oregon State errors, which rejuvenated the Wolf Pack and ignited the comeback. Taylor Holder and Nolan Wilson each walked against AJ Hutcheson, then the bases became loaded when Beaver shortstop Elijah Hainline dropped a throw at second from Jacob Krieg which would have forced Wilson on Jackson Waller’s grounder.
Two batters later, Josh Catacutan lined a single past the shift and into left-center, plating Holder and Wilson to halve the deficit and make it 10-8.
Some shrewd strategy from the Pack led to another Beaver gaffe and the ninth Wolf Pack run. Mason Hirata squared to bunt, and as Oregon State third baseman Mason Guerra crept in, Waller and Catacutan broke for a double steal. Tanner Smith’s throw to third sailed over Guerra and into left field, scoring Waller and moving Catacutan to third. Gifted the tying run on third, Hirata dropped a textbook bunt down the first-base line to place Catacutan with the tying run.
Reliever Matt Canizares came on for the top of the ninth and buckled down after a leadoff walk to Hainline. Canizares, who improved to 1-0 with the win, struck out Krieg and Canon Reeder, then got pinch-hitter Wilson Weber to foul out to first, earning an ovation from the Peccole faithful.
While the win went to Canizares, he was part of a quartet of Wolf Pack relievers along with Eddie Tierney, Ian Hughes, and Kolby Kmetko who allowed just two unearned runs, two hits, and struck out seven over the final 5.1 innings.
Freethy’s walk-off was the Pack’s third homer of the game, with the first two coming in the game’s opening frame. Taylor Holder hit his second home run of the series, and 10th of the season, a three-run shot, and Nolan Wilson made it back-to-back with a solo shot to right-center.
Nevada (15-18) overcame an Oregon State surge which started with the Beavers’ seven-run fourth inning. Wolf Pack starter Nico Wagner was working smoothly until running into trouble in the fourth. Wagner was just an out away from a third-straight shutout inning, but, with a runner on first, he issued consecutive walks to Easton Talt and Jabin Trosky to load the bases. Tanner Smith walked to force in a run, and Wagner hit Dallas Macias to account for a second Beaver run. Gavin Turley then gave Oregon State the lead for good, clearing the bases with a grand slam to left-center. Elijah Hainline added a double two batters later to make it 8-4.
A Wolf Pack fielding error to start the sixth led to a pair of unearned runs for the Beavers (30-6), as the Oregon State lead increased to 10-4.
Nevada got two runs back in its half of the sixth, the first as Waller came around on a Justin Acal double, and the second as Acal, who advanced to third on the throw home, came across on Catacutan’s sacrifice fly.
Catacutan and Holder each drove in three runs to lead Nevada, while Freethy and Acal each went 2-for-4.
Turley went 2-for-4 and drove in four runs to lead Oregon State (30-6), while Tanner Smith walked four times and scored twice.
Nevada returns to Mountain West play this weekend, heading south to face UNLV with the three-game set beginning Friday night.
