PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers softball opened up its west coast spring break trip on Tuesday by spoiling Oregon State's home opener in picking up a 4-2 victory over the Beavers.

Rutgers 4, Oregon State 2

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

• Ella Harrison got the start going 4.1 innings, allowing no runs and two hits. She racked up six strikeouts en route to improving her record to 10-9 on the year. Senior Laurelai DePew closed the game throwing the final 1.1 innings, giving up one hit while fanning a trio of Beavers.
• Graduate student LA Matthews, junior Siera Hoekstra and Gaelen Kelly all picked up RBIs.
• Freshmen Riley Hwang and Baileigh Burtis were both 2-for-4 with Burtis scoring a run.

THE RUNDOWN

• Rutgers took a 1-0 lead in the third. Addie Osborne led off with a walk, moved to second on a sac bunt from Jillian Anderson and got to third on a single from Hailey Stripling. LA Matthews hit a grounder to second allowing the freshman third baseman to score.
• The Scarlet Knights added two more in a wild sequence in the fourth. The bases were loaded as Gaelen Kelly captured an infield hit to second. As the Beavers went to make the play at first, Baileigh Burtis scored. Oregon State then went to try and stop Siera Hoekstra from scoring but the junior shortstop beat out the throw. While the Beavers did eventually get an out, catching Riley Hwang at third after starting the play at first base, Kelly advanced to second and RU went out to a 3-0 advantage.
• In the fifth, the bases were loaded for Siera Hoekstra to walk scoring LA Matthews to extend RU's lead to 4-0.
• Oregon State put two on the scoreboard in the bottom of the inning with a pair of hits. Tristan Thompson connected for a solo home run to left while Madison Weir followed with a walk and scored on a Jada Lewis single to center.
• To close the game, the Beavers had runners in the corners with the go-ahead run at the plate. Laurelai DePew picked up her third strikeout of the contest for her first save of the year.

UP NEXT

The Rutgers softball team returns to action on Wednesday, March 19 at Portland State. Game time has been moved up to 3:00 p.m. (ET).

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