OSU Ties Record With Seven Homers
March 07, 2001 | Baseball
March 7, 2001
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State tied a single-game school record with seven home runs and Scott Nicholson pitched his third win of the season as the Beavers beat Washington 17-3 in non-league baseball Wednesday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. OSU (9-8 overall, 0-0 Pacific-10) also saw rightfielder Josh Carter extend his hitting streak to 15 games in the win.
Oregon State now meets Washington State in Yakima, Wash., in a three-game non-league series this weekend. Game times are Friday at 3 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at noon at Yakima Valley Community College, Sunday's game can be heard on KLOO-AM (1340).
Against Washington (6-3, 0-0), the Beaver barrage started with back-to-back homers by Andy Jarvis and Brian Barden in the bottom of the fourth inning and didn't end until Jason McBride's pinch-hit two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth. Seven different OSU players homered as the Beavers tied a school record set April 11, 2000 in a 13-5 win at Portland.
"They got comfortable at the plate," OSU head coach Pat Casey said of the Beavers. "But it all starts with pitching. When a guy comes out and pitches well for you, you don't feel that pressure on offense that you're going to have to keep scoring and scoring to win."
Nicholson provided that pitching for the Beavers, improving to 3-1 with a 3.93 earned run averge this season. The senior lefthander went 7 1/3 innings and allowed just three runs (two earned) on five hits and two walks, striking out eight, that came after a strong outing Friday in a loss against San Francisco.
"Last weekend was just crap," Jarvis said of OSU's complete-game 4-3 and 3-2 losses by Nicholson and Thad Johnson against USF. "When guys go out there and just give up three or four runs, you've got to win the game, especially in college baseball. If those guys go out and give performances like this, we'll win a lot of games."
Jarvis and Barden are sophomores who had been in recent lulls at the plate after outstanding freshman seasons. Jarvis was 2-for-5 and drove in three runs Wednesday, while Barden was 3-for-6 and drove in two runs.
"The last couple of games, I'm seeing the ball better and I've taken a few more pitches," said Jarvis, now with four homers and a team-high 22 runs batted in in 2001. "And when I hit, it helps get Brian going, when he hits, it helps get somebody else going. And getting (centerfielder/leadoff hitter) Eric Stark back in the lineup helps us, too."
Barden, now with three homers and 22 RBIs, followed Jarvis' blast to right in the fourth inning with a drive off the 1952 Pacific Coast Conference pennant hanging high above the ballpark's outer wall in leftfield. That put OSU up 6-1 in the bottom of the fourth, breaking the game open.
"My confidence is better and I'm seeing the ball better," Barden said. "I'm not trying to do a whole bunch up there like I was in the beginning - I was looking to get a hit every time up and that wasn't working. I was trying to pull everything instead of using the whole field, which was my strength last year."
Zach Gordon added a two-run homer in the bottom of the fourth to make it 8-1. In the seventh, Will Hudson delivered a solo homer to right and Chris Biles added a three-run drive into the hitting backdrop of firs behind the centerfield fence for a 13-1 lead.
In the bottom of the eighth, Carter - who had extended his hitting streak with a first-inning single - poked a two-run homer to center. McBride, pinch-hitting later in the inning, then closed the scoring by launching a ball over the tall outer fence in left-centerfield.
OSU finished with 16 hits and every Beaver starter had at least one hit. Carter was 3-for-4, raising his batting average to .483, and Curtis Davis was 2-for-3 to lift his average to .458.
OREGON STATE 17, WASHINGTON 3
Washington 010 000 020 - 3 8 2 Oregon State 101 420 54x - 17 16 2Shepple, Grant (5), Gibson (6), Petersen (7), Carter (8) and Thiel, Yarbrough (8). Nicholson, Hays (8), Copeland (9) and Richie. WP-Nicholson (3-1). LP-Shepple (0-1). 2B-Garthwaite (UW). HR-Hudson (OSU), Carter (OSU), Jarvis (OSU), Barden (OSU), Biles (OSU), McBride (OSU), Gordon (OSU).
HITS: Washington 8 (Reynolds 1x3, Garthwaite 1x4, Davidson 3x3, Thiel 1x4, Otness 1x1, Miller 1x1), Oregon State 16 (Stark 1x4, Hudson 1x4, Carter 3x4, Jarvis 2x5, Barden 3x6, Biles 1x3, McBride 1x1, Davis 2x3, Gordon 1x4, Richie 1x4). RUNS BATTED IN: Washington 3 (Garthwaite 2, Thiel 1), Oregon State 16 (Hudson 1, Carter 2, Jarvis 3, Barden 2, Biles 4, McBride 2, Gordon 2).
Washington 3 (6-3) Oregon State 17 (9-8) AB R H RBI AB R H RBI Rittenhouse 2b/ss 4 0 0 0 Stark cf 4 1 1 0 Ramsey ph 0 0 0 0 Hudson ss 4 3 1 1 Reynolds ss 3 0 1 0 Carter rf 4 4 3 2 Wagner pr/3b 1 1 0 0 Jarvis 1b 5 3 2 3 Br.Johnson 1b 3 1 0 0 Barden 3b 6 2 3 2 Garthwaite lf 4 1 1 2 Biles lf 3 1 1 4 Davidson dh 3 0 3 0 Howard lf 0 0 0 0 Thiel c 4 0 1 1 McBride ph 1 1 1 2 Yarbrough c 0 0 0 0 Postlewait lf 0 0 0 0 Done 3b 3 0 0 0 Davis dh 3 1 2 0 Otness 2b 1 0 1 0 TenPas pr/dh 1 0 0 0 Porter rf 3 0 0 0 Gordon 2b 4 1 1 2 Miller ph 1 0 1 0 Richie c 4 0 1 0 Marshall cf 3 0 0 0 Nicholson p 0 0 0 0 Drake ph 1 0 0 0 Hays p 0 0 0 0 Shepple p 0 0 0 0 Copeland p 0 0 0 0 Grant p 0 0 0 0 Gibson p 0 0 0 0 Petersen p 0 0 0 0 Carter p 0 0 0 0 Totals...... 34 3 8 3 Totals...... 39 17 16 16Score by innings: R H E ---------------------------------------------- Washington 010 000 020 - 3 8 2 Oregon State 101 420 54 - 17 16 2 ----------------------------------------------
E - Thiel 2, Hudson, Gordon. DP - Oregon St. 3. LOB - Washington 8, Oregon St. 11. 2B - Garthwaite. HR - Hudson, Carter, Jarvis, Barden, Biles, McBride, Gordon. SF - Biles. SB - Stark.
IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF Fly Gnd NP Washington Shepple L 0-1 4.0 7 6 6 4 4 2 0 1 0 18 24 4 4 Grant 1.0 3 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 6 7 2 0 Gibson 1.0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 2 1 Petersen 1.0 4 5 5 2 0 0 0 0 0 7 9 2 1 Carter 1.0 2 4 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 5 7 1 0 Oregon State Nicholson W 3-1 7.1 5 3 2 2 8 0 0 0 0 28 30 9 4 Hays 0.2 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 Copeland 1.0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 5 1 1
WP - Shepple 2. HBP - by Shepple (Stark).
Strikeouts - Rittenhouse, Br.Johnson, Garthwaite, Thiel, Porter 2, Marshall 2, Stark 2, Hudson, Biles 2, TenPas, Gordon. Walks - Ramsey, Reynolds, Br.Johnson, Davidson, Stark, Hudson 2, Carter 2, Jarvis, Biles, Davis 2, Gordon, Richie.
Umpires - Home:Randy Knuths 1st:Dave Perez 3rd:Kendall Snyder Start: 2:04 pm Time: 3:05 Attendance: 753
Game Notes: Oregon State ties a single-game school record with 7 home runs (Record had been set at Portland in 13-5 win in 2000)
