Pitching, defense cost OSU in baseball
April 10, 1999
TUCSON, Ariz. - Oregon State found pitching and defensive lapses costly on Saturday afternoon as the Beavers lost to Arizona 10-7 in Pacific-10 baseball at Frank Sancet Field. OSU (12-23 overall, 1-7 Pacific-10) gave up four runs in the first inning, then saw the Wildcats (24-16, 6-8) score a pair of unearned runs in the middle innings and get to the OSU bullpen for three more runs in the late innings to beat the Beavers for the second straight day.
"Were scoring enough runs to win, theres no question," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "Weve done a great job offensively down here. But pitching and defense generally determine the outcome, and were just not pitching well enough at the beginning of the game."
OSU and Arizona wrap up their three-game series Sunday at noon; the starting time of that game has been moved up one hour from previous schedules. The Beavers will again be without senior outfielder Rob Colley, who may have broken his wrist during his final at-bat in Friday nights game.
Even without Colleys hot bat in the lineup, the Beavers outhit Arizona 15-11 on Saturday. After falling behind 4-0 in the first inning, Oregon State rallied.
The Beavers got a two-run single from Corrie Willkie in the third inning, then tied the game at 4-4 in the top of the fourth inning on back-to-back run-scoring doubles by Drew Hedges and Troy Schader. The Beavers deadlocked it again at 5-5 in the top of the fifth on an RBI single by Willkie.
But in the bottom of the fifth, the Wildcats scored a pair of unearned runs to go up 7-5 after Beaver shortstop Troy Schader mishandled a ball hit to his right.
"Troy has been tremendous for us defensively all year," Casey said. "That was just an error at a key time, and it hurt us."
OSU starting pitcher B.R. Cook settled down after allowing the four first-inning runs, but the first two Wildcats reached base in the bottom of the eighth. When Casey turned to the bullpen, Arizona came up with three runs on one hit, a pair of walks and a hit batter against Hal Ranstad and Mike Boire to make it 10-5.
"B.R. pitched well after the first inning," Casey said. "Then we needed somebody to come out of the pen and shut them down, and we didnt get it."
Oregon State tightened the game again in the top of the ninth inning on a two-run double by Curtis Davis and eventually brought the tying run to the plate, but OSUs rally fell short.
Schader took sole possession of 10th place on OSUs career RBIs list when his double drove in his 103rd run as a Beaver. OSUs Joe Gerber extended his hitting streak to seven games with a single.
ARIZONA 10, OREGON STATE 7
Oregon State 002 210 002 - 7 15 2 Arizona 400 120 03x - 10 11 0Cook, Ranstad (8), Boire (8), Mitchell (8) and Ingram. Pearce, Pemble (7), Meyer (9), Capek (9) and Anderson. WP-Pearce (4-4). LP-Cook (3-7). 2B-Rumrey (OSU), Willkie (OSU), Davis (OSU), Hedges (OSU), Schader 2 (OSU), Huff (UA). HR-Durazo (UA).
HITS: Oregon State 15 (Rumrey 2x5, Willkie 3x3, Gerber 1x4, Duerr 1x1, Dryden 1x2, Davis 1x2, Carter 1x5, Hedges 2x5, Schader 2x5, Ingram 1x4), Arizona 11 (Juday 1x4, DeRenne 3x4, Duncan 1x4, Durazo 1x3, Torres 2x5, Huff 2x5, Anderson 1x4). RUNS BATTED IN: Oregon State 7 (Willkie 3, Davis 2, Hedges 1, Schader 1), Arizona 10 (Juday 1, DeRenne 1, Duncan 1, Durazo 3, Jones 1, Huff 3).
