Beavers Take 8-6 Baseball Victory Over Gonzaga
February 14, 2004 | Baseball
SURPRISE, Ariz. - Shea McFeely was 3-for-4 with a triple and a home run as Oregon State won its second straight game to open the baseball season, beating Gonzaga 8-6 on Saturday afternoon in the Coca-Cola Classic at Surprise Stadium. Freshman lefthander Kevin Gunderson earned the victory for two scoreless innings in relief, while freshman righthander Dallas Buck picked up the save for the second straight day for the Beavers (2-0 overall).
OSU wraps up the tournament against Cal State-Northridge on Sunday at 8 a.m. PST. The game can be heard via the internet at www.osubeavers.com
Against Gonzaga (1-1), the Beavers donned orange jerseys for the first time since the early 1980s and Oregon State scored seven unanswered runs in the fifth through seventh innings to take an 8-3 lead. McFeely's two-run homer in the top of the fifth inning tied the game, then OSU scored three times in the sixth to take the lead for good.
"Gonzaga is a very good ballclub, and I think we did some things right," Oregon State head coach Pat Casey said. "I thought we stayed with it and did a good job with their lefthanded kid (GU starter Ed Clelland), who is pretty tough. We were solid, and we've just got to continue to get better. We can swing the bat a little better, but it was a real good win."
The Bulldogs used three groundball singles, a walk and an error to score three times against OSU starter Ben Rowe in the bottom of the third inning, giving Gonzaga a three-run lead. But McFeely evened the game in the top of the fifth with a two-out, two-run homer to left center; he'd already tripled to right-center and singled.
"I was just getting a good pitch every time, taking a swing and hitting it hard," said McFeely, who had doubled on Friday and kept it going with his first-inning triple. "After that you can go up there and see hitting it hard, you see the ball a lot better after that."
Gunderson then came in and pitched the first of his two scoreless innings. In the top of the sixth, the Beavers gave him a 6-3 lead on run-scoring singles by Billy Munich and Aaron Mathews and a squeeze bunt by Chris Kunda.
OSU added two more runs on back-to-back, two-out run-scoring doubles by Tony Calderon and pinch-hitter Chris Campos in the seventh inning. After the Bulldogs scored twice in the bottom of the seventh, freshman righthander Jake McCormick got the Beavers out of the inning.
"We've got to continue to get help from some other guys. We didn't want to come back and throw McCormick and Buck again, but we did and they came in and were strong," Casey said. "We had three freshmen in the game today throwing, and we had the same thing Friday. As each game goes, we'll get better with those guys."
OSU allowed an unearned run behind McCormick in the eighth inning, then turned things over to Buck for the ninth. It wasn't a new role for Buck, who had closed games between starts in high school.
"They put me out there; I'm going to do what I can," Buck said. "If I get it done, I get it done; if I don't, I don't."
Buck struck out the first hitter he faced, then gave up an opposite field single on a no-balls, two-strikes pitch. When Buck hit the next batter with the first pitch, the tying run was on base with the top of the order coming up.
"We've still got a two-run lead, so nothing's hurt," said Buck, who proceeded to get a groundout and another strikeout to end the game.
Aaron Mathews was 2-for-5 with a double and two runs batted in for Oregon State. The Beavers started the season 2-0 for the first time since winning their first three games of the season in 1999.
OREGON STATE 8, GONZAGA 6
Oregon State 001 023 200 - 8 10 4 Gonzaga 003 000 210 - 6 13 3
Rowe, Gunderson (5), Sanders (7), Pendley (7), McCormick (7), Buck (9) and Munich, Richie (8). Clelland, McEwen (6), Albrecht (8), Everson (9) and Thibault. W-Gunderson (1-0). L-McEwen (0-1). Sv-Buck (2). 2B-Mathews (OSU), Calderon (OSU), Campos (OSU), Johnson (GU). 3B-McFeely (OSU). HR-McFeely (OSU).
HITS: Oregon State 10 (Mathews 2x5, McFeely 3x4, Jenkins 1x4, Calderon 1x3, Campos 1x1, Lissman 1x4, Munich 1x3), Gonzaga 13 (Brennan 4x6, Welker 1x5, Rundle 1x5, Johnson 1x4, Reding 2x5, Thibault 2x3, McGuinness 2x5). RUNS BATTED IN: Oregon State 8 (Mathews 2, McFeely 2, Calderon 1, Campos 1, Munich 1, Kunda 1), Gonzaga 5 (Brennan 1, Johnson 2, Reding 1, McGuiness 1).
Oregon State 8 (2-0) Gonzaga 6 (1-1)Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Aaron Mathews cf........... 5 0 2 2 Jackson Brennan 1b......... 6 1 4 1 Jacoby Ellsbury rf......... 3 1 0 0 Brad Welker 3b............. 5 0 1 0 Shea McFeely 3b............ 4 1 3 2 Jeff Culpepper rf.......... 3 1 0 0 Andy Jenkins 1b............ 4 1 1 0 Mike Rundle 2b............. 5 2 1 0 Tony Calderon ss........... 3 2 1 1 David Johnson lf........... 4 1 1 2 Cole Gillespie dh.......... 3 0 0 0 Matt Reding dh............. 5 0 2 1 Chris Campos ph........... 1 0 1 1 Kiel Thibault c............ 3 1 2 0 Scott Nelson ph........... 1 0 0 0 Aaron McGuinness ss........ 5 0 2 1 Mitch Canham pr........... 0 0 0 0 Chris Sinner cf............ 4 0 0 0 Mike Lissman lf............ 4 1 1 0 Ed Clelland p.............. 0 0 0 0 Bryan Stone lf............ 0 0 0 0 Bobby McEwen p............ 0 0 0 0 Billy Munich c............. 3 1 1 1 Chris Albrecht p.......... 0 0 0 0 Tyler Graham pr........... 0 0 0 0 Eric Everson p............ 0 0 0 0 Paul Richie c............. 1 0 0 0 Chris Kunda 2b............. 2 1 0 1 Ben Rowe p................. 0 0 0 0 Kevin Gunderson p......... 0 0 0 0 Jared Sanders p........... 0 0 0 0 Nathan Pendley p.......... 0 0 0 0 Jake McCormick p.......... 0 0 0 0 Dallas Buck p............. 0 0 0 0 Totals..................... 34 8 10 8 Totals..................... 40 6 13 5
Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Oregon State........ 001 023 200 - 8 10 4 Gonzaga............. 003 000 210 - 6 13 3 -------------------------------------------
E - Ellsbury; McFeely 2; Kunda; Welker; McGuinness; Sinner. DP - Oregon St. 2. LOB - Oregon St. 9; Gonzaga 14. 2B - Mathews; Calderon; Campos; Johnson. 3B - McFeely. HR - McFeely. HBP - Ellsbury 2; Sinner. SH - Kunda 2. SF - Johnson. SB - Ellsbury. CS - Mathews.
Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO ------------------------------------------------ Ben Rowe .................. 4.0 6 3 2 3 2 Kevin Gunderson W,1-0..... 2.0 2 0 0 2 2 Jared Sanders ............. 0.1 2 2 2 0 0 Nathan Pendley ............ 0.1 2 0 0 0 1 Jake McCormick ............ 1.1 0 1 0 0 0 Dallas Buck S,2........... 1.0 1 0 0 0 2
Gonzaga IP H R ER BB SO ------------------------------------------------ Ed Clelland ............... 5.0 4 3 2 2 3 Bobby McEwen L,0-1........ 1.2 5 5 5 3 0 Chris Albrecht ............ 2.0 1 0 0 1 2 Eric Everson .............. 0.1 0 0 0 0 1
WP - McCormick. HBP - by Clelland (Ellsbury); by Albrecht (Ellsbury); by Buck (Sinner). PB - Thibault.
Umpires - HP: Todd Freese 1B: Jason Rogers 3B: Paul Arreola Start: 3:07 pm Time: 3:31 Attendance: 372
