Oregon State opens super regional with 8-1 win over Minnesota

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) – Trevor Larnach and Adley Rutschman hit back-to-back home runs in the first inning and No. 3 national seed Oregon State beat Minnesota 8-1 in the first game of a best-of-three super regional on Friday.

Larnach, selected 20th by the Minnesota Twins in the Major League Baseball draft earlier this week, finished 2 for 3 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Rutschman added an RBI double followed by Michael Gretler’s RBI triple in the seventh for the Beavers (48-10-1).

OSU scored one run in the second and two more in the fourth on back-to-back doubles by Jack Anderson and Zak Taylor and an RBI single by Steven Kwan.

Oregon State starter Luke Heimlich (16-1) went 8 2/3 innings with nine strikeouts and seven hits. He left the game to a standing ovation in his last start at Goss Stadium.

Heimlich, the two-time Pac-12 pitcher of the year, was not selected in the draft. The senior left-hander pleaded guilty as a teenager to a charge of molesting a 6-year-old relative. Recently he has denied the charge and said the guilty plea was the result of poor legal advice.

Minnesota (44-14), the No. 10 national seed, scored on a home run by Toby Hanson in the eighth.