Baseball Sweeps Portland State
April 19, 1998
PORTLAND, Ore. - Oregon State strengthened its hold on first place and completed an eight-game season sweep of Portland State by taking a 14-8 win in Pacific-10 Northern Division baseball Sunday afternoon at Portland Civic Stadium. The 21st-ranked Beavers (27-9-1 overall, 11-4 Northern Division) are now 1 games ahead of Washington and two games ahead of Washington State.
The Beavers, who have won five straight and 21 of their last 25 games, will play a non-league game at Portland on Tuesday before hosting WSU in a key five-game weekend series at Coleman Field. The teams will play doubleheaders both Friday and Saturday at noon, then a single game Sunday at 1 p.m.
Against PSU (12-25, 1-15), Oregon State had to overcome deficits of 5-2 and 6-3 to take the win. Relief pitcher Mike Boire kept the Beavers close until they scored six runs in the top of the fifth inning, then OSU added four more runs in the top of the sixth.
"Give Portland State credit - they had an aggressive offensive series," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "They were ahead in three of the games. We should have pitched better early, but the club is going good right now at the plate (54 runs in four games). We also made defensive mistakes, and we can't make those and win this thing."
OSU made a late decision to start lefthander Joe Gerber rather than righthander B.R. Cook on the mound. Gerber, who had saved the first game of a doubleheader with one scoreless inning on Saturday, ran into control problems and didn't get out of the second inning. Jason Bronson and Hal Ranstad followed; those three Beaver pitchers combined to allow six runs on 10 hits in 3 2/3 innings.
Boire settled things down and earned his second win of the season. He pitched a career-high 5 1/3 innings, allowing just two runs on four hits, walking one and striking out one. The junior who set OSU's single-season save record with eight last season has enjoyed this spring's move from closer to to long relief.
"It's just a different role," Boire said. "Bails (Matt Bailie) has done a good job as a closer, and we were looking for a guy to come in and shut someone down. I usually give up a couple of hits." After not pitching in more than a week, it took Boire a little while to regain his form.
"The first 2 1/3 innings, I felt rusty," Boire said. "The last three innings felt good . sometimes it takes a couple innings to get going. Your arm feels worse the first couple innings, then you get going and feel good."
Oregon State took the lead 9-6 with six runs in the top of the fifth inning, as Matt Bailie doubled home two runs and Brian Duerr, Troy Schader and Rob Colley all added run-scoring singles. Jason Stranberg provided a three-run double in the top of the sixth as the Beavers added four more runs to make it 13-6.
Joe Gerber kept his torrid hitting pace, extending his hitting streak to 12 games by going 2-for-4 with a double and a home run. Drew Hedges had a double and a triple in his 2-for-5 day, while Stranberg drove in four runs and Duerr stretched his hitting streak to 11 games by going 3-for-5.
OSU committed three errors, but the Beavers also made several tough plays behind Boire - particularly two in the ninth inning, when third baseman Schader dove toward the line to snare a line drive by Rusty Keith, then rightfielder Garrett Bates went to the warning track to make a running catch of a fly ball hit by David Ferres.
Final Score:
NO. 21 OREGON STATE 14
PORTLAND STATE 8
Oregon State 200 164 100 - 14 16 3
Portland State 113 102 000 - 8 14 0
Gerber, Bronson (2), Ranstad (3), Boire (4) and Bertrand. Oyler, Woodward (5), Rainwater (5), Blackhurst (6) and Andrade. WP-Boire (2-0). LP-Oyler (2-2). 2B-Stranberg (OSU), Bertrand (OSU), Gerber (OSU), Hedges (OSU), Bailie (OSU), Ferres (PSU), Riehl (PSU), Rainwater (PSU). 3B-Hedges (OSU). HR-Gerber (OSU).
HITS: Oregon State 16 (Stranberg 2-4, Colley 1-4, Bertrand 2-5, Gerber 2-4, Hedges 2-5, Bailie 1-5, Duerr 3-5, Schader 2-5, Willkie 1-3), Portland State 14 (Keith 3-6, Ferres 3-6, Andrade 1-3, Riehl 3-5, Rainwater 2-3, Stewart 1-5).
RUNS BATTED IN: Oregon State 14 (Stranberg 4, Colley 1, Gerber 1, Hedges 2, Bailie 2, Duerr 2, Schader 2), Portland State 6 (Ferres 1, Andrade 2, Rainwater 2, Stewart 1).
T-3:32. A-240.
