Five-Hitter Keeps Beavers Unbeaten
February 15, 2004 | Baseball
Feb. 15, 2004
SURPRISE, Ariz. - Andy Baldwin and Kyle Asleton combined to pitch a five-hitter as Oregon State beat Cal State-Northridge 3-2 Sunday morning in the Coca-Cola Classic baseball tournament at Surprise Stadium. Paul Richie's two-run homer gave OSU the lead for good as the Beavers (3-0 overall) stayed unbeaten on the season.
"We have no complaints when we go 3-0," said OSU head coach Pat Casey, whose team is off to its best start since it also went 3-0 to begin the 1999 campaign. "The guys feel good about it; it was a great tournament. We played pretty clean baseball today against a good Northridge club; now we've got to get back and get ourselves a little better for next weekend. There are a couple little things I think we can do better."
Oregon State will play at the Texas-Arlington Invitational next weekend, meeting host UTA on Friday at 1:30 p.m. PST. The Beavers will also play Arkansas-Little Rock and Southwest Missouri State during the tourney.
Against Cal State-Northridge (4-6), Baldwin made the first start of his career and the sophomore righthander went 6 1/3 innings, the longest appearance of his career by 2 1/3 innings. His six strikeouts matched his career high; he gave up two runs (one earned) on four hits, no walks and two hit batters.
Asleton, a junior college transfer, went the final 2 2/3 innings. The lefthander allowed one hit and two walks while striking out one in his first relief appearance since high school.
"Our pitching staff has a different look this year," said Richie, who caught most of the innings during the weekend. He saw the Beavers got good starts from Baldwin and senior Jake Postlewait and fine relief from freshmen Jake McCormick, Kevin Gunderson and Dallas Buck in particular.
"Guys are coming out and they're a little more aggressive," Richie said. "We've got some good arms, and some of those freshmen got their feet wet a little bit; now they know what it's like and they're going to settle in."
It was Richie who gave the Beavers the lead with his first home run since late in the 2002 season, sneaking a two-ball, no-strike pitch just over the wall near the 379-foot marker in left-centerfield. Coming on the heels of Mitch Canham's single up the middle, it put OSU up 2-0.
"When it left the bat, I just wanted to get out of the box hard," Richie said. "It's great if it goes over; if not, you want to get at least two bases."
Cal State-Northridge got one run back in the top of the third inning and would have had more if not for a tremendous diving catch by Beaver centerfielder Aaron Mathews. With one out and runners at second and third, CSUN designated hitter Drew Aguailar lofted a drive to deep centerfield; Mathews turned and ran with his back to home plate, then dove toward the outfield wall and snagged the ball.
Fleener tagged and scored from third base, but when Raymond Ravago tried to advance from second to third, the Beavers cut him down with a relay from Mathews to shortstop Tony Calderon to third baseman Shea McFeely to end the inning.
"He hit it pretty hard," Mathews said of the play. "I was playing him a little up and he hit it a little to my right; I just had to go back on it and I laid out."
OSU made it 3-1 in the bottom of the fifth when Chris Kunda walked and Mathews drove him in by yanking a double down the leftfield line.
The Matadors made it a one-run game again in the seventh inning when John Voita doubled with one out, and that was all for Baldwin. An infield single, a sacrifice fly and a walk against Asleton brought made it 3-2 and CSUN still had runners at first and second, but Calderon flagged down Fleener's sharp grounder in the hole toward third base, then fired a strike to Kunda covering second for the forceout to end inning.
Richie was 2-for-3 and Mathews was 2-for-4 for the Beavers, who outhit the Matadors 7-5 and committed one error to CSUN's two. It was the first time this season that the Beavers had either outhit an opponent or committed fewer errors, but OSU still managed to get through the first weekend unbeaten.
"It's a real good start for us," Richie said. "It gives us a little momentum going into next weekend. We've got a group of guys who believe what we're about this year. We're going to come out and play hard every day, scrap and fight, and do whatever it takes to win."
Added Mathews: "I'm proud of this team, and we'll get it done next weekend, too."
OREGON STATE 3, CAL STATE-NORTHRIDGE 2
Cal State-Northridge 001 000 100 - 2 5 2 Oregon State 020 010 00x - 5 7 1Baker, Rocchio (7), Bettl (7), Polanco (8) and Fleener. Baldwin, Asleton (7) and Richie. W-Baldwin (1-0). L-Baker (1-1). Sv-Asleton (1). 2B-Voita (CSUN), Fleener (CSUN), Mathews (OSU). HR-Richie (OSU).
HITS: Cal State-Northridge 5 (Voita 1x4, Paulk 2x4, Fleener 2x2), Oregon State 7 (Mathews 2x4, Ellsbury 1x4, Canham 1x3, Richie 2x3, Kunda 1x2). RUNS BATTED IN: Cal State-Northridge 2 (Aguailar 1, Perez 1), Oregon State 3 (Mathews 1, Richie 2).
Cal State-Northridge 2 (4-6) Oregon State 3 (3-0)Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Quinn Ciccarelli cf........ 1 0 0 0 Aaron Mathews cf........... 4 0 2 1 Drew Aguailar dh........... 3 0 0 1 Mike Hass rf............... 3 0 0 0 Mark McCauley 3b........... 3 0 0 0 Cole Gillespie ph......... 1 0 0 0 Keith Renno lf............. 4 0 0 0 Bryan Stone lf............ 0 0 0 0 John Voita rf.............. 4 1 1 0 Jacoby Ellsbury lf/rf...... 4 0 1 0 Michael Paulk 1b........... 4 0 2 0 Tony Calderon ss........... 3 0 0 0 Jesse Perez ss............. 3 0 0 1 Shea McFeely 3b............ 4 0 0 0 Adam Fleener c............. 2 1 2 0 Chris Campos dh............ 4 0 0 0 Raymond Ravago 2b.......... 1 0 0 0 Mitch Canham 1b............ 3 1 1 0 Erik Hagstrom 2b.......... 0 0 0 0 Paul Richie c.............. 3 1 2 2 Alberto Quintana ph....... 1 0 0 0 Chris Kunda 2b............. 2 1 1 0 Chase McGuire ph/2b....... 0 0 0 0 Andy Baldwin p............. 0 0 0 0 Craig Baker p.............. 0 0 0 0 Kyle Asleton p............ 0 0 0 0 Joe Rocchio p............. 0 0 0 0 Jimmy Brettl p............ 0 0 0 0 Phil Polanco p............ 0 0 0 0 Totals..................... 26 2 5 2 Totals..................... 31 3 7 3
Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Cal State-Northridge 001 000 100 - 2 5 2 Oregon State........ 020 010 00X - 3 7 1 -------------------------------------------
E - Fleener; Baker; McFeely. DP - Oregon St. 2. LOB - CSU-Nrthrdg. 5; Oregon St. 6. 2B - Voita; Fleener; Mathews. HR - Richie. HBP - Ciccarelli 2. SH - Ciccarelli; Ravago. SF - Aguailar; Perez. SB - Paulk; Ellsbury. CS - Ciccarelli.
Cal State-Northridge IP H R ER BB SO ------------------------------------------------ Craig Baker L,1-1......... 6.0 5 3 3 1 6 Joe Rocchio ............... 0.2 2 0 0 0 1 Jimmy Brettl .............. 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 Phil Polanco .............. 1.0 0 0 0 1 0
Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO ------------------------------------------------ Andy Baldwin W,1-0........ 6.1 4 2 1 0 6 Kyle Asleton S,1.......... 2.2 1 0 0 2 1
HBP - by Baldwin (Ciccarelli); by Baldwin (Ciccarelli).
Umpires - HP: Paul Arreola 1B: John Woods 3B: Jeff Jenkins Start: 9:04 am Time: 2:12 Attendance: 175
