No. 7 Oregon State baseball (38-12-1) made its return home after two weekends and over 8,000 miles of travel on Tuesday, May 13, taking a 5-3 win over Portland (21-27) at Goss Stadium.

“We pulled it out, but I still have extremely high expectations for what out guys need to do,” Beavers head coach Mitch Canham said. “We’ve got to fine tune little things tomorrow. Got to put together a good plan and make sure we take (a deep) breath and are ready to go for a big series (against Long Beach State).”

The Beavers and Pilots each finished with nine hits, but savvy at-bats by Oregon State sent the home crowd happy.

AJ Singer led the way with a 3-for-5 day and two RBI, leading Oregon State’s lineup in both categories. Batting clean up, the Beavers second baseman drove in shortstop Aiva Arquette to give Oregon State a lead in the bottom of the first. He’d collect his second four innings later, driving a single past Portland third baseman Zach Toglia to bring Gavin Turley home from second base.

Another RBI-single, this time from outfielder Canon Reeder, scored catcher Wilson Weber and capped off a two-run inning for the Beavers.

In the seventh, Oregon State put up two more runs without swinging the bats to bring runners in. Weber led off the frame with a triple, before Singer got himself aboard with his third hit. Weber was held on third with the infield playing in, but wouldn’t have to wait long to be driven in.

A seven-pitch at-bat from Reeder loaded the bases, setting up an eight-pitch at-bat by first baseman Tyce Peterson to bring Weber home and Singer to third. Outfielder Dallas Macias didn’t grind out as long of an at-bat as the two before, but a hit-by-pitch to the back had the same affect, driving in the fifth run for the home team.

For Canham, stranding 12 runners is less than ideal, but with a revolving door of pinch-hitters becoming the norm over the last two weeks, he was pleased with the performance.

“There are no stats right now from here on out. No one cares — nor should you ever really care. It’s, ‘Did you win the game, or did you not?'” Canham said. “It wasn’t like we were driving runs in with the bat, (but we) found a way to walk and get hit (when we needed it).”

Redshirt freshman James DeCremer made his first career start in the win over Portland. The right-hander didn’t rack up ungodly strikeout numbers, throw a no-hitter or even earn a decision in the game. But DeCremer managed to pitch his way out of a bases-loaded jam in the second inning and gave his team four innings of one-run ball. He struck out three while letting up five hits, but the only damage done to the scoreboard on DeCremer’s watch came off a solo home run by Portland’s Toglia.

It was the longest outing of DeCremer’s collegiate career, even if he said he was lobbying for another inning.

“Of course,” DeCremer said. “You always try (to get another inning). But we’ve got, like, 20 guys in the pen who do a really good job. So it doesn’t matter, we won.”

It didn’t take the 20 arms DeCremer mentioned to get through the game, with just three coming on in relief.

Zach Kmatz was first out of the pen, taking over for DeCremer come the top of the fifth. The freshman righty made quick work of the Pilots in the fifth, but surrendered three-straight hits in the sixth, including a two-RBI to Portland backstop Jake McCarthy that evened the game at 3-3 and was replaced. Fellow freshman Zach Edwards finished off the sixth and recorded the first two outs of the seventh before passing the ball to Laif Palmer, who closed out the game.

Palmer (2-0) earned the win with two and one-third perfect innings, striking out one. Across 14 appearances and 26.2 innings this season, the 6-foot-6 sophomore right-hander has continued to assert himself as a back of the pen arm for the Beavers, holding onto a 1.35 ERA despite the large work load.

“I really liked what we all saw out of Palmer again tonight,” Canham said. “His slider looks really sharp right now. I asked him before the game, ‘How are you feeling?’ and he goes, ‘We’re in the last four games of the regular season, we’ve got a week and a half off after this. So, yeah, I’m good.'”

Only three games remain for the Beavers, who will face Long Beach State (22-28) for the last regular-season games at Goss. First pitch between the Beavers and Dirtbags is scheduled for 5:35 p.m. on Thursday, May 15 in Corvallis.