Oregon State third baseman Trent Caraway (44) rounds second base after a home run against USC on Monday, June 2. Caraway was named the Corvallis Regional's MVP, bashing five homers in five games. Courtesy photo: Emma Calimag-Sisson

For the eighth-time in program history, the Oregon State Beavers baseball team is Super Regional-bound.

A 9-0 win over the USC Trojans on Monday, June 2, was the cherry on the top-seeded Beavers’ sundae, battling back from a brutal 6-4 loss to fourth-seeded Saint Mary’s in their opening game of the Corvallis Regional to rattle off four-straight wins and advance. Oregon State became the first top-eight nationally-seeded squad to pull off the feat since the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns did it in 2014.

For head coach Mitch Canham, who will manage his Beavers in a super for the second time since he replaced three-time national champion head coach Pat Casey, this was how it was meant to happen. Canham came back to that phrase — “It was meant to happen” — or some variation of it after nearly every game of the Corvallis Regional.

“I’ve been praying on it a lot. About why we’re here, what we’re doing and why everything has happened,” Canham said. “If you’re going to make an incredible story, you can’t just stop short at a few hiccups here and there. You’ve got to pile them all in there and really make something that people are going to be inspired by and remember.”

Canham continued, citing specific performances from the day and weekend.

“Someday, a kid is going to step on campus and talk about (remembering) watching James DeCremer go out there and strike out so-and-so,” he said.

If a folk hero was born Monday (one not named Trent Caraway), it was DeCremer. The redshirt freshman made just the second start of his collegiate career against the Trojans, pitching career-highs across the board with five shutout innings, six strikeouts and surrendering just two hits and two walks. DeCremer’s third win of 2025 was unquestionably the best of his career, as well as a vindicating one.

DeCremer missed his true-freshman season after having back surgery. And after a lengthy recovery period, getting the baseball as a real collegiate pitcher was a success, let alone doing it as a starter in a game seven.

“I’d say that when I was in it, like rehabbing and coming back, I was kind of worried I’d never make it back,” DeCremer said. “This year has helped a lot, and the guys around me helped a lot in terms of confidence.”

With DeCremer on the bump, Oregon State’s lineup scored at least one run in four of the five innings to take a 6-0 lead by the top of the sixth.

The third-straight day of offensive dominance by Oregon State included a three-run third frame highlighted by shortstop Aiva Arquette’s first home run of 2025 at Goss Stadium and 18th of his junior season. Arquette’s two-run blast was one of four the Beavers hit, joined by first baseman Jacob Krieg, outfielder Gavin Turley and third baseman Trent Caraway’s own bombs. Outfielder Easton Talt added a double on the second pitch of the game, rounding out the Beavers’ five extra bases.

Come the top of the sixth and after 71 pitches (and a calf cramp in his right leg), DeCremer handed the ball of to fellow right-hander Eric Segura. Segura, Oregon State’s Friday starter, was shelled by the Gaels, but dominated the Trojans. According to himself, the coaching staff had told him that he’d get another crack at the Corvallis Regional if the Beavers made it to Monday.

And to Monday they went. In three scoreless innings of work, Segura allowed just one hit, walked three and struck out five.

“I’m glad I got the opportunity, first off, to come back and help my team win,” Segura said of his bounce-back. “After that first day, it would’ve sucked to leave it that way, to be honest… I was ready for it and I wanted it.”

Segura started out on the hill in the ninth with the lead having grown to 9-0 after Krieg’s three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth. But after surrendering a leadoff hit to USC’s Ethan Hedges (the only hit Segura allowed), right-hander Laif Palmer was called upon for the final three outs, recording them in order.

The Beavers now advance to a Super Regional, which they’ll once again host at Goss Stadium. No. 9 Florida State, who won its regional in three games, will come to town for the best-of-three series with a trip to Omaha on the line.

Days, start times and pitching matchups between Beavers and Seminoles have yet to be announced at the time of publication.