They let out a collective roar.

Jake Rife did celebratory pull-ups on the UW dugout.

Head coach Ken Knutson had short, positive words for his resurgent baseball team in their postgame meeting.

On a day when a win would keep their postseason hopes alive, the Washington baseball team traded blows with Oregon State and edged out the Beavers 4-3 yesterday at Husky Ballpark to win the three-game series after a 6-4 loss Friday at Safeco Field and a 15-6 win Saturday.

For the Huskies, the win represents a culmination of hard work that helped them break out of a mid-season lull.

“We’re good; we can play,” Knutson said. “It shows that things that happened earlier in the season [are] history, and now we’re back on our way into consideration. The hard work is paying off; we’re beating quality teams now.”

Just one game after Husky Ballpark was dedicated as “Chaffey Field at Husky Ballpark” in honor of Herb Chaffey, a long-time supporter of and donor to UW baseball, the Huskies sought what could be one of their most important wins this season.

The Huskies (24-25, 12-9 Pac-10) got on the board first, 1-0, with an RBI walk by Brendan Gardner-Young in the second inning, while freshman starter Andrew Kittredge limited the Beavers to a hit and a walk through the first two frames.

But the Beavers were getting unlucky with some of their hard-hit balls, many of them finding the gloves of charging, leaping and diving UW outfielders. Eventually, they would fall.

Ryan Ortiz drove in Michael Miller with a deep sacrifice fly to center field to tie the game at one in the third inning, and OSU (29-14, 12-9 Pac-10) knocked Kittredge out of the game in the top of the fifth after stroking three singles for another run to make it 2-1.

Kittredge wasn’t his usual self.

The freshman from Spokane, Wash., entered the game with a 2.93 ERA and .218 opponent batting average, but gave up two runs on six hits and two walks through 4 2/3 innings.

“He struggled,” Knutson said. “[He] didn’t have his normal stuff. I think the strike zone affected him a little bit; there were some calls he didn’t get, and he never got the rhythm.”

The Huskies, though, answered back in the bottom half of the fifth off OSU starter Jorge Reyes when Gardner-Young hit his first home run of the season, a solo shot, to tie the game back up at two.

Then Troy Scott gave the Huskies the 3-2 lead with a blazing single up the middle to score Pierce Rankin from second.

But the Beavers and Huskies traded blows in the seventh inning, putting the Dawgs on top 4-3 after a pinch-hit RBI double by Aaron Russell.

That would be more than enough for closer Brian Pearl, who was brought in to pitch two hitless innings and give the Huskies a much-needed win.

“It was probably the biggest game of the year, and we came out on top,” Scott said. “So we’re just going to keep it rolling to the postseason hopefully.”

Reach reporter Allen Wagner at sports@dailyuw.com.