Oregon State Beavers beat Mississippi State 5-2, move on to face Arkansas in College World Series Finals

OMAHA, Neb. - The Oregon State Beavers knocked off Mississippi State 5-2 Saturday in TD Ameritrade Park to complete a climb through the loser's bracket to the College World Series Finals.

The Beavers lost their CWS opener to North Carolina, then had to win four games in six days to get there.

"You could see we were on fumes," OSU coach Pat Casey said.

Maybe, but the Beavers got the job done. OSU (53-11-1) will meet Arkansas (47-19) in a best-of-three series beginning Monday at 4 p.m. PDT.

OSU got a strong start Saturday from freshman Kevin Abel, and packaged it together some timely, two-out hitting in their half of the third inning to give the right-hander all the support he needed.

Abel went seven innings, giving up just three hits and a run before giving way to Jake Mulholland. Abel has a dynamic fastball, and a pair of off-speed pitches that can make hitters look silly.

But, if you believe him, it never was as easy as it looked.

"The changeup felt really good the first couple innings," Abel said. "I lost it in the middle of the game. It came back to me in the sixth and seventh, and helped me get through it. The curveball was kind of hit or miss today.

"Fastball location was probably the biggest thing. When I had that, they didn't do any damage."

Mulholland made it dramatic with two out in the ninth. He gave up a run-scoring single to Luke Alexander, walked one batter, hit another. Suddenly the bases were loaded with the winning run coming to the plate in the person of Jordan Westburg.

If Westburg's name is familiar, maybe it's because he hit a walk-off grand slam earlier in the CWS against North Carolina.

"Mully is a drama queen," Abel said.

Mulholland closed the door by enticing Westburg into a game-ending ground ball to shortstop Cadyn Grenier.

The Beavers had Christian Chamblerlain and Luke Heimlich up in the bullpen. But Casey elected to stay with his closer.

"I just said he's going to finish one way or another," Casey said.

Oregon State jumped on Mississippi State starter Ethan Small with two outs in the top of the third.

Grenier got it going by doubling to the fence in left. Trevor Larnach followed with an infield single.

Adley Rutschman stroked a line single to center to drive in Grenier. Tyler Malone then gave a 3-1 fastball from Small a 375-foot ride to the seats in right-center for a three-run homer.

"Fastball, like middle, middle away," Malone said. "It was right after a curveball he threw in the dirt. In that situation I geared up for the fastball because of what the count was."

As it turns out, that was all the offense OSU needed.

Mississippi State (39-29) scratched for a run in the bottom half of the inning. Abel put himself in jeopardy by issuing walks to Luke Alexander and Jake Mangum.

Rowdey Jordan then slapped a single to drive in Alexander and cut the OSU lead to 5-1. It was the first hit surrendered by Abel.

The Bulldogs ran themselves out of a possible scoring chance in the bottom of the fifth.

Dustin Skelton had walked and was on first with two out when Mangum lined a shot to left that fell in front of OSU left fielder Kyle Nobach.

Not content with a single, Mangum attempted to stretch the hit to a double. OSU gunned him down, Nobach throwing to Grenier, who wheeled and fired a strike to Nick Madrigal to catch Mangum three steps from the bag for the inning's third out.

"Mangum has great speed," Grenier said. "He put the ball in the gap. Kyle did a great job of cutting it off and getting it to me, and I was able to make the relay to Nick, and Nick was able to put the tag down. If we don't do everything perfectly there, he has a double and it's a whole different situation."

Steven Kwan, normally OSU's starting center fielder, did not start Saturday because of a hamstring strain.

But Kwan pinch hit in the ninth and stayed in the game defensively in the bottom of the ninth, perhaps signaling he will be available for the Arkansas series.

Here is the box score for the game.

-- Ken Goe

kgoe@oregonian.com | @KenGoe

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