Oregon State and Yale will meet in an elimination game Friday at PK Park, with one season staying alive and the other ending in Eugene. First pitch is set for 1 p.m., and the winner will move on to Sunday’s regional game against the winner of Saturday night’s Ducks vs. Cougars matchup.
The Beavers, 43-13, are trying to regroup after a 3-2 loss to Washington State in the opening round of the NCAA Eugene Regional. Yale, 30-13-1, arrives in the same spot after falling 14-2 to host Oregon, leaving both teams in the double-elimination bracket with no margin left. The game can be streamed on +.
That is what makes Friday’s meeting such a hard stop. Oregon State and Yale both lost on opening day, so the loser will be eliminated from the tournament and the winner will be the last team standing from the early bracket path at PK Park, a result that matters because the regional continues through the weekend and only one team can keep moving through it. The Ducks vs. Cougars game is scheduled for 6 p.m. Saturday.
For Oregon State, the assignment is simple and unforgiving: beat Yale and buy another day. For Yale, it is the same, with the added pressure of facing a team that has spent the season winning far more often than it has lost. One of them will still be playing Sunday. The other will be done before the regional reaches its final round.
