Oregon State shuts down Mississippi State’s offense

OMAHA, Neb. — Kevin Abel and Jake Mulholland combined on a four-hitter, Tyler Malone hit his third home run of the College World Series, and Oregon State survived some ninthinning drama to beat Mississippi State, 5-2, Saturday night at TD Ameritrade Park Omaha to reach the best-of-three final against Arkansas.

As they did in 2006, when they won the first of two consecutive titles, the Beavers came back from losing their CWS opener to win four in a row and make the final.

Abel allowed three singles, walked three and struck out five in seven innings as Oregon State (53-111) held down Mississippi State’s offense for the second day in a row. Beavers pitchers gave up five hits in a 12-2 win Friday that forced the Bracket 1 final rematch.

Mulholland pitched a perfect eighth and retired the first two batters in the ninth before running into some trouble. He walked two in a row, Luke Alexander singled in a run and Mulholland plunked pinch hitter Tanner Poole to load the bases for Jordan Westburg.

Westburg, who hit a grand slam against North Carolina two games ago, grounded out to end it.

Mississippi State (39-29) mostly shut down an Oregon State offense that came into the game batting .377 and averaging 10.8 runs in four games in Omaha.

Five of the Beavers’ eight hits in the game came in succession in a five-run third inning after Bulldogs starter Ethan Small (5-4) got two quick outs. Adley Rutschman and Michael Gretler had RBI singles before Malone’s three-run homer barely cleared the fence in right-center field.

Malone, who hit five homers in five consecutive games in mid-April, had no more until his three-homersin-four-games in Omaha.

Oregon State held the Bulldogs scoreless for eight consecutive innings spanning two games until Rowdey Jordan’s RBI single in the third accounted for the Bulldogs’ lone run.

OSU coach Pat Casey lamented Friday that the Beavers had yet to get a quality start through four CWS games. Bryce Fehmel’s fourinning outing against Washington had been the longest.

Abel (6-1) gave them what could only be called a highquality start. He retired the first six batters he faced, striking out three of them, and took a one-hitter into the fifth. In Abel’s previous CWS appearance, he pitched four innings of one-hit, one-run relief against Washington.