Beavers win home baseball opener
March 07, 2000 | Baseball
March 7, 2000
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Chris Biles was 3-for-3 with a double, his first collegiate home run and four runs batted in Tuesday afternoon as Oregon State celebrated the season's Opening Day at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field with a 9-5 win over Western Oregon in non-league baseball. The Beavers (8-6 overall, 0-0 Pacific-10) have won five straight and seven of their last eight games.
Oregon State continues its first homestand of the season this weekend, playing Washington State in a non-league series. The teams meet Friday at 2 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. and all three games can be heard on KLOO-AM (1340), with the Friday game being joined in progress at 3 p.m.
Against Western Oregon (5-17, 0-0 Cascade Collegiate), the Beavers rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to win their home opener for the 27th time in the last 30 years. OSU, which is now 73-19 all-time in home openers, was coming off two wins at Washington last weekend.
"Subconsciously, maybe we weren't at the level we should have been," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "Sometimes these games are tough to play, and Western Oregon is a better team than 5-17. But we can't come out the same way this weekend, or it will be a long weekend (against Washington State)."
OSU evened the game in the second inning, scoring three times on Biles' two-run double off the fence in right-center field and Will Hudson's sacrifice fly. The Beavers then went up 6-3 with a four-run third inning that included Joe Gerber's two-out, two-run single which drove in the go-ahead runs.
Biles made the score 8-3 with his two-run homer to right-center in the fourth inning. Biles, a freshman reserve catcher, is now 8-for-11 this spring after redshirting the 1999 season due to a knee injury.
"I've gotten a lot of lucky hits," Biles said. A lot of them have been bloops into left field. I've hit the ball hard a few times, but I seem to have had a lot of them just drop in. I've been trying to make the most of the playing time I get - Bryan (Ingram, the starter) is a good catcher. I just want to give him a break sometimes and swing the sticks a little."
Drew Hedges was 3-for-4 with a double for OSU while Josh Carter was 2-for-5. Hedges, Carter and Brian Barden all pushed their hitting streaks to seven games and Gerber extended his hitting streak to eight games. Zach Gordon - who ended his slump with two homers, a double and a triple at Washington on Sunday - continued his hot hitting with a 2-for-3 day.
Western Oregon's early surge at the plate included a home run on the first pitch of the game by Jared Bailie. Bailie is the younger brother of Matt Bailie, who set OSU's career record for runs batted in while playing from 1995-98 and is now pitching in the Philadelphia Phillies organization.
Bailie's homer was one of two given up by Beaver starting pitcher Mark Newell, who lasted just two innings and gave up three runs (all earned) on three hits, walking none and striking out two.
"For a fifth year senior, pitching a game like that, he's got to dominate," Casey said. "Mark is better than that. Then Thad Johnson went out there and his performance had to help him."
Johnson, coming off two rough starts, earned the win with three scoreless innings. The junior college transfer gave up three hits and two walks while striking out three.
Bailie and Josh Nelson both finished 2-for-3 for Western Oregon and David Herrin, who had the other homer for the Wolves, was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Chris Bentley took the pitching loss for Western Oregon, going five innings and allowing eight runs (five earned) on 12 hits and two walks, striking out three.
OREGON STATE 9, WESTERN OREGON 5
Western Oregon 210 001 001 - 5 8 1 Oregon State 030 320 01x - 9 13 0Bentley, Lockett (6), Swearingen (8), McCargar (8) and Edwards. Newell, Johnson (3), Hays (6), Stykel (8) and Biles. WP-Johnson (1-1). LP-Bentley (0-4). 2B-Nelson (WOU), Hedges (OSU), Barden (OSU), Biles (OSU). HR-Bailie (WOU), Herrin (WOU), Biles (OSU).
HITS: Western Oregon 8 (Bailie 2x3, Josh Nelson 2x3, Collins 1x4, Towne 1x4, Herrin 2x4), Oregon State 13 (Hedges3x4, Gerber 1x4, Carter 2x5, Jarvis 1x4, Barden 1x4, Biles 3x3, Gordon 2x3). RUNS BATTED IN: Western Oregon 5 (Bailie 1, Nelson 1, Collins 1, Herrin 2), Oregon State 7 (Gerber 2, Biles 4, Hudson 1).
