Gerber Sets OSU Mark For Career Doubles
March 12, 2000 | Baseball
March 12, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State's Joe Gerber set a school record for career doubles Sunday afternoon but the Beavers' winning streak ended at seven games as OSU fell to Washington State 11-6 in non-league baseball at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. Gerber's double in the third inning was the 37th of his career, passing the mark of 36 set by Ken Bowen from 1984-87.
OSU (10-7 overall, 0-0 Pacific-10), which has won nine of its last 11 games, will play in the Continental Express Classic on March 17-20 at Texas A&M. The Beavers will play six games in four days against a field that includes the host Aggies, Ohio State and Central Michigan.
Oregon State took two of three from the Cougars (8-12, 2-1) on the weekend after winning 8-3 and 14-2.
"It was a real positive for us to win the series," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "I don't question our drive or our effort (in Sunday's game), but we made some mistakes. Some of them don't show up on the scoreboard (as errors), but they were mistakes that kept us from scoring some runs or let them score some runs."
Sunday afternoon against Washington State, Oregon State rallied after trailing 4-0 early but the Cougars scored five times with two out in the top of the seventh inning to take control of the game. All five runs scored after Beaver righthander James Atwood appeared to have struck out the Cougars' Bookie Gates on a pitch in the dirt, but the ball skipped past catcher Bryan Ingram and Gates reached first base.
"The tough thing was that we had a team down in our own yard, then came out and dug ourselves a hole by not being sharp," Casey said. "Our guys scrap and fight their way back into the game, then you strike a guy out with two out but they get five runs. That's tough to recover from."
Prior to the Cougars taking advantage of OSU's mistake, the Beavers had staged a pair of comebacks. The first came in the bottom of the third inning, when Oregon State scored five times to go in front 5-4 as Andy Jarvis and Drew Hedges delivered two-run singles and Gerber a run-scoring double.
Gerber's hit was a fly ball that landed inches inside the left-field line, just out of reach of a trio of Cougars. Besides giving him OSU's career record for doubles, it extended his hitting streak to 11 games, during that time, Gerber is batting .460 (23-for-50) with nine doubles, one home run and 22 runs batted in.
Washington State went back in front 6-5 in the top of the fifth inning on Steve Curran's two-run double to left, but the Beavers evened the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the sixth when Hedges tucked a home run just inside the right-field foul pole.
Hedges' hitting streak now stands at nine games after his 2-for-5, three-RBI day while Brian Barden and Josh Carter both pushed their hitting streaks to 10 games. OSU had 12 hits on the day, giving the Beavers 11 straight games in which they've reached double-digits in hits, during that time, Oregon State is batting .375 as a team and averaging over 11 runs per game.
As OSU has been winning nine of its last 11 games, the Beaver pitching staff has lowered its earned run average over half a point from 6.56 to 5.93 and has held opposing batters to a .281 batting average. In that 11-game span, Beaver pitchers have also walked just 48 batters while striking out 77.
WASHINGTON STATE 11, OREGON STATE 6
Washington State 220 020 500 - 11 14 3 Oregon State 005 001 000 - 6 12 1Rivard, Fisher (3), O'Brien (6) and Smith. Johnson, Copeland (2), Atwood (5), Hays (9) and Biles, Ingram (7). WP-O'Brien (4-0). LP-Atwood (2-3). 2B-Curran (WSU), Smith (WSU), Gerber (OSU). 3B-Nilsen (WSU). HR-Hedges (OSU).
HITS: Washington State 14 (Stevenson 1x4, Hecker 2x2, Bailie 2x6, Curran 2x5, Hattenburg 1x3, Nilsen 1x5, Williams 2x5, Smith 3x5), Oregon State 12 (Hedges 2x5, Barden 3x5, Gerber 1x5, Carter 1x4, Jarvis 1x2, Davis 1x2, Gordon 1x4, Hudson 2x4). RUNS BATTED IN: Washington State 9 (Stevenson 1, Hecker 1, Bailie 1, Curran 2, Nilsen 1, Williams 2, Smith 1), Oregon State 6 (Hedges 3, Gerber 1, Jarvis 2).
