Baseball Splits with No. 20 Washington
May 2, 1998
SEATTLE - Oregon State kept its hopes for a Pacific-10 Northern Division baseball title alive Saturday afternoon as the 21st-ranked Beavers split a doubleheader with Washington at Husky Ballpark. OSU (32-13-1 overall, 15-8) got a two-hitter from Andrew Checketts to win the first game 8-2, then wound up on the short end of a 20-6 score in a second game that featured 10 homers. OSU and 20th-ranked Washington (3-14, 16-7) wrap up their series and their division seasons with a single game Sunday at 1 p.m. A Beaver win would make the teams co-champions and force a playoff game Monday to determine which team advances to the Pacific-10 Championship Series; a Husky win would give Washington sole possession of the title.
"Sunday is our championship game," said OSU's Matt Bailie, who homered in each game Saturday. "If we don't win Sunday, there really isn't another day for us. When we get on the bus, we'll have our game faces on. I think you'll see the team that came out ready for the first game today."
In that game, as they have all season, the Beavers got a huge boost from senior righthander Andrew Checketts. Checketts improved to 11-1 this season and was just three outs from OSU's first no-hitter in 31 years; he finished with a two-hitter, walking none and striking out three.
Checketts moved into seventh place on OSU's career victory list with his 24th win as a Beaver, and he rated it his biggest. It didn't come without some tense feelings after watching Washington score a bundle on Friday.
"Yeah, I had some nerves," Checketts said. "You watch them score 16 runs in this Cracker Jack box and it feels like you're playing in a softball complex."
He'd even had a dream about the game Friday night, but it wasn't a nightmare.
"I threw the whole game last night," said Checketts, who admitted he hadn't even managed a two-hitter in his dreams. "No, but we did win the game."
It helped not to think too much about what was in store. "I call my girlfriend the night before I pitch, and she calms me down," Checketts said. "We just don't talk about baseball . I'm on the road, in a hotel, and there's nothing to do except think about baseball so I get some studying done, or talk with my family, or I'd go nuts."
Instead, Checketts drove the Huskies nuts with his usual precise off-speed offerings. He didn't allow a hit until the Beavers carried an 8-0 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning, and Nick Stefonick grounded a ball back up the middle to end the no-hit bid. "I had a swipe at it, but hit hit hard off the turf," Checketts said. "I left the ball up - it was a bad pitch." Kevin Miller followed with a double to left-center to put runners at second and third, and Checketts said there was no letdown from losing the no-hitter.
"I was just trying to win the game at that point," Checketts said. He than gladly gave up a pair of sacrifice flies and one final fly out to end the game and assure the Beavers that their game on Sunday would have meaning.
"You see some people with big, big hearts who just know how to compete," Casey said. "We send a guy out there in the first game with an 80-mph fastball and a guy out there in the second game (Brody Percell) with a 90-mph fastball, and the difference is location. That's how you win games, right there on the mound." The Beavers hadn't managed a run off Washington lefthander Matt Hampton until the top of the fourth inning, when Bailie lofted an opposite-field two-run homer to right and Brian Duerr added an RBI single. Rob Colley made it 5-0 with a two-run homer in the fifth, and OSU added its final runs in the top of the seventh on a two-run single by Greg Conley and an RBI single by Corrie Willkie. The second game was all Washington from the outset, as the Huskies built a 19-0 lead after four innings. Each team homered five times, with the Beavers getting a pair of solo homers from Joe Gerber, a two-run homer by Duerr and solo shots by Brett Bowring (his first career hit) and Bailie.
FIRST GAME - NO. 21 OREGON STATE 8, NO. 20 WASHINGTON 2 Oregon State 000 320 3 - 8 13 2 Washington 000 000 2 - 2 2 1 Checketts and Bertrand. Hampton and Orgill. WP-Checketts (11-1). LP-Hampton (3-4). 2B-Miller (UW). HR-Colley (OSU), Bailie (OSU). HITS: Oregon State 13 (Stranberg 2-4, Colley 1-3, Schader 1-4, Bertrand 2-4, Bailie 2-4, Hedges 1-3, Conley 1-3, Duerr 2-4, Willkie 1-4), Washington 2 (Stefonick 1-3, Miller 1-3). RUNS BATTED IN: Oregon State 8 (Colley 2, Bailie 2, Conley 2, Duerr 1, Willkie 1), Washington 2 (Erickson 1, Lentz 1). T-2:09.SECOND GAME - NO. 21 WASHINGTON 20, NO. 20 OREGON STATE 6 Oregon State 000 001 041 - 6 11 6 Washington 339 400 01x - 20 17 0 Percell, Hansen (3), Stykel (4) and Bertrand, Bowring (5). Carlsen, Gardner (8), Morrison (9) and Bundy, Orgill (7). WP-Carlsen (7-3). LP-Percell (4-4). 2B-Hedges (OSU), Stefonick (UW), Ticen (UW). 3B-Stefonick (UW). HR-Bowring (OSU), Gerber 2 (OSU), Bailie (OSU), Duerr (OSU), Magruder (UW), Stefonick (UW), Miller 2 (UW), Lentz (UW). HITS: Oregon State 11 (Colley 2-4, Bowring 1-3, Gerber 2-5, Hedges 3-3, Bailie 1-4, Duerr 2-4), Washington 17 (Magruder 2-5, Stefonick 3-4, Miller 2-4, Woody 3-4, Lentz 1-4, Ticen 2-5, DeMar 1-2, Bundy 1-4, Rittenhouse 2-4). RUNS BATTED IN: Oregon State 6 (Bowring 1, Gerber 2, Bailie 1, Duerr 2), Washington 19 (Magruder 5, Stefonick 5, Miller 5, Lentz 2, Orgill 1, Rittenhouse 1). T-3:07. A-1,042.
