Beavers Stay Unbeaten With 7-0 Baseball Win
February 20, 2004 | Baseball
Feb. 20, 2004
ARLINGTON, Tex. - Jake Postlewait, Jake McCormick and Jared Sanders combined to pitch the shutout as Oregon State beat Texas-Arlington 7-0 on Friday afternoon on the initial day of the Texas-Arlington Invitational baseball tournament at Clay Gould Ballpark. Chris Campos' three-run homer in the eighth inning broke the game open as OSU (4-0 overall) got off to its best start since 1995, when it won its first five games.
"It's always tough to win in somebody else's ballpark," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. Our challenge now is to come out Saturday ready to go ... guys are finding ways to win, and we just talked about seeing how long we could keep it going."
The Beavers will try to equal 1995's season-opening mark on Saturday when they meet Arkansas-Little Rock at 1:30 p.m. PST. The Trojans lost to Southwest Missouri State 13-5 on Friday.
Against the host Mavericks (2-3), the three Beaver pitchers combined on a six-hitter as OSU posted its first shutout since blanking George Fox 4-0 on May 8, 2003. Postlewait went 6 2/3 innings to earn the win, walking three and striking out one. He improved to 2-0 this season as he worked out of trouble several times and then was bailed out by McCormick in the seventh inning.
"Jake (Postlewait) wasn't as sharp as he was last week" in beating Utah on Opening Day, Casey said. "It was impressive that he was as tough as he was, because he knew he didn't have his very best stuff and yet he still really competed. We made some nice plays behind him early, especially in the outfield."
The Beavers took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Mike Lissman's two-out, run-scoring single into leftfield. OSU then clung to that lead through the bottom of the second and third innings as Postlewait wriggled out of jams.
In the second, UTA had runners at second and third with one out when Josh McSpadden chopped a ball back to the mound and Postlewait knocked it down. As Dane Ryan broke from second base, Ryan Nelson stayed put at third; Postlewait checked the runners at fired to first baseman Andy Jenkins for the second out.
With Ryan hung up between second and third, Nelson had edged off third base and he tried to retreat to the bag but Jenkins' throw to third baseman Shea McFeely was in time to nail Nelson and end the inning.
In the third, a pair of walks helped load the bases with one out but Postlewait got the third hitter in the Mavs' order, Hunter Pence, to pop out and then retired cleanup hitter Nelson on a flyout to finish that threat.
OSU increased its lead to 2-0 in the fifth inning when Aaron Mathews got a long flyball into the wind heading out to leftfield and it snuck over the fence for his first home run of the season. In the sixth, Paul Richie came up with a key two-out single to drive in OSU's third run; he'd been down in the count no-balls, two-strikes before watching one pitch and then slapping the next one to rightfield.
"The thing that was big there was, we had struggled doing that up to that point," Casey said of the hit by OSU's senior catcher. "It was a big hit, a timely hit, and it got us going a little bit. We needed to get a two-strike hit because they'd been pretty tough on us with two strikes. The guy they had throwing (Jake Baxter) was pretty good; he was able to mix his pitches well."
That got the righthander Baxter out of the ballgame, and Chris Kunda greeted reliever Blake Pierson with an infield single that drove home another run to make it 4-0.
UTA rallied to put runners at first and third with one out against Postlewait in the seventh inning; after Postlewait got a tapper back to the mound for the second out, McCormick came on to induce a groundout from pinch hitter Ryan Werner that closed out the inning.
In the eighth, Lissman walked and Tony Calderon reached on an error against Pierson, and the Mavs brought in Michael Garza to face Chris Campos. Campos had gone into the game in the fourth inning replacing Mike Hass, who had been picked off earlier in the game.
On a two-ball, one-strike pitch, Campos drove the ball well over the rightfield fence. The first homer of the junior college transfer's OSU career made it 7-0, and McCormick and Sanders kept the lead secure over the final two innings.
"We got some timely hitting. I don't think we're hitting the way we're capable, but we're doing it at the right time," Casey said. "The pitching keeps us in the ballgame and it's a little easier to do some things. We let Chris Campos swing the bat late instead of bunt and he came up with a big home run for us."
Jenkins was 2-for-4 with a double and Jacoby Ellsbury was 2-for-5 for the Beavers. Postlewait, a senior lefthander, has allowed just one earned run in 11 2/3 innings this season and McCormick, a freshman righthander, has not allowed an earned run in his three appearances.
OREGON STATE 7, TEXAS-ARLINGTON 0
Oregon State 100 012 030 - 7 10 1 Texas-Arlington 000 000 000 - 0 6 1Postlewait, McCormick (7), Sanders (9) and Richie. Baxter, Pierson (6), Garza (8), Hutton (8) and Lewis, Werner (8). W-Postlewait (2-0). L-Baxter (0-2). 2B-McFeely (OSU), Ryan (UTA). HR-Mathews (OSU), Campos (OSU). HITS: Oregon State 10 (Mathews 1x5, Ellsbury 2x5, McFeely 1x4, Jenkins 2x4, Lissman 1x2, Campos 1x3, Richie 1x4, Kunda 1x2), Texas-Arlington 6 (Baker 2x4, Nelson 1x3, Bruder 1x4, Ryan 1x3, Macha 1x1). RUNS BATTED IN: Oregon State 7 (Mathews 1, Lissman 1, Campos 3, Richie 1, Kunda 1), Texas-Arlington 0.
Oregon State 7 (4-0) Texas-Arlington 0 (2-3)Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI --------------------------------------- --------------------------------------- Aaron Mathews cf........... 5 1 1 1 Kasey Baker dh............. 4 0 2 0 Jacoby Ellsbury lf......... 5 0 2 0 Aaron Batlle 3b............ 3 0 0 0 Shea McFeely 3b............ 4 1 1 0 Hunter Pence lf............ 4 0 0 0 Chad Schroeder pr/3b...... 0 0 0 0 Ryan Nelson 1b............. 3 0 1 0 Andy Jenkins 1b............ 4 1 2 0 Darrell Preston ph........ 1 0 0 0 Mitch Canham ph/1b........ 1 0 0 0 Paul Bruder cf............. 4 0 1 0 Mike Lissman dh............ 2 1 1 1 Dane Ryan rf............... 3 0 1 0 Scott Nelson ph........... 1 0 0 0 Daniel Macha rf........... 1 0 1 0 Tony Calderon ss........... 4 2 0 0 Josh McSpadden ss.......... 2 0 0 0 Mike Hass rf............... 0 0 0 0 Daniel Lenihan ph......... 0 0 0 0 Chris Campos ph/rf........ 3 1 1 3 Carey Avants 2b............ 3 0 0 0 Paul Richie c.............. 4 0 1 1 Brett Lewis c.............. 2 0 0 0 Chris Kunda 2b............. 2 0 1 1 Ryan Werner ph/c.......... 1 0 0 0 Jake Postlewait p.......... 0 0 0 0 Jake Baxter p.............. 0 0 0 0 Jake McCormick p.......... 0 0 0 0 Blaker Pierson p.......... 0 0 0 0 Jared Sanders p........... 0 0 0 0 Michael Garza p........... 0 0 0 0 Hardy Hutto p............. 0 0 0 0 Totals..................... 35 7 10 7 Totals..................... 31 0 6 0
Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- Oregon State........ 100 012 030 - 7 10 1 Texas-Arlington..... 000 000 000 - 0 6 1 -------------------------------------------
E - McFeely; Batlle. DP - Oregon St. 2; UT-Arlington 1. LOB - Oregon St. 8; UT-Arlington 8. 2B - McFeely; Ryan. HR - Mathews; Campos. HBP - McFeely. SH - Lissman.
Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO ------------------------------------------------ Jake Postlewait W,2-0..... 6.2 4 0 0 3 1 Jake McCormick ............ 1.1 1 0 0 0 0 Jared Sanders ............. 1.0 1 0 0 1 1
Texas-Arlington IP H R ER BB SO ------------------------------------------------ Jake Baxter L,0-2......... 5.2 7 4 4 3 5 Blaker Pierson ............ 1.1 1 2 1 1 0 Michael Garza ............. 1.0 1 1 1 1 0 Hardy Hutto ............... 1.0 1 0 0 0 1
WP - Pierson. HBP - by Pierson (McFeely).
Umpires - HP: Marc Lewis 1B: Scott Johnston 3B: John Ausmus Start: 3:36 pm Time: 2:42 Attendance: 352
Pierson faced 2 batters in the 8th.
