OMAHA, Neb. — Oregon State used a seven-run fourth inning to break open the game against mistake-prone Louisville, and the Beavers stayed alive in the College World Series with an 11-4 victory on Monday.
The No. 3 national seed Beavers (51-12) play another elimination game Wednesday against Mississippi State or Indiana. The Cardinals (51-14) committed four errors against the Beavers and 13 in their last six games.
Ben Wetzler (10-1) allowed three runs in 6 1-3 innings. Jeff Thompson (11-2) lasted 3 2-3 innings, with three of the seven runs against him unearned.
Oregon State scored the most runs allowed by Louisville this season. It was the highest-scoring game at the CWS in the three years it’s been played at TD Ameritrade Park.
Andy Peterson went 3 for 4 and Max Gordon had two hits and two RBIs out of the No. 9 hole for the Beavers.
Oregon State capitalized on a hit batsman and two errors for a three-run third inning against Thompson, the Detroit Tigers’ third-round draft pick.
Gordon was plunked leading off and scored from first when Tyler Smith doubled into the left-field corner.
Peterson’s bunt single and a walk to Michael Conforto loaded the bases. Conforto should have been retired, but Louisville catcher Kyle Gibson dropped a high pop foul along the third-base line.
Two runs came home when Cardinals second baseman Zach Lucas, after fielding a slow grounder, made a careless flip wide of shortstop Sutton Whiting.
The Beavers all but finished off the Cards in the seven-run fourth, batting through their lineup for the 18th time this season and scoring all the runs with two outs.
Dylan Davis just beat third baseman Ty Young’s throw on a bases-loaded chopper. Louisville first baseman Zak Wasserman, thinking Davis was out and the inning over, started jogging toward the dugout unaware that Peterson was coming around to score from second.
Two more runs scored on Whiting’s overthrow of Wasserman, and reliever Kyle Funkhouser’s bases-loaded walk and Gordon’s single brought in three more.
The Cardinals ranked a respectable 76th out of 296 Division I teams in fielding after the regular season, but they committed two or more errors in five of their last six games.
The Beavers are trying to become the fourth team since 1981 to win the national championship after losing its CWS opener. They did it in 2006, when they won the first of two straight titles.
