Baseball Wins Eighth Straight
April 5, 1998
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State scored 11 runs in the seventh and eighth innings to beat Portland State 18-8 Sunday afternoon in Pacific-10 Northern Division baseball at Coleman Field. The win was the eighth straight for the Beavers (20-7-1 overall, 5-2 Northern Division) and it was OSU's 14th win in its last 16 games. OSU had to come from behind three times against PSU (9-18, 0-8) on Sunday.
"It's nice to see us score some runs when we had to," OSU head coach Pat Casey said. "We've been relying on our pitching so much lately, then we get in a situation where we had to score and the guys did it. I was glad to see us get it going."
The win, coupled with Washington's 9-7, 12-inning win over Washington State in Seattle, leaves OSU one-half game behind the first-place Huskies going into next weekend's four-game series at Coleman Field. The teams will play a single game at 3 p.m. Friday, a doubleheader at noon Saturday, and a single game at 1 p.m. Sunday.
"It'll be great, because we've got three teams (OSU, UW and WSU) bunched at the top," Casey said. "We're going to have to play good baseball to take the series. I think Washington, top-to-bottom, is the best team in the Pac-10. We've had some good series against them, and some guys are starting to break out a little offensively.
"We've gotten better each week, and I hope that pattern continues." The Beavers whacked out 19 hits on Sunday, including three each by Ben Bertrand, Matt Bailie, Ryan Lipe and Troy Schader. Bailie led off the seventh inning with his first home run since March 22, a line drive over the left field fence that drew the Beavers even at 8-8 and started OSU's late-inning barrage.
"It was see-saw the whole way," Bailie said of a game that saw PSU trail 5-1 early and then take leads of 6-5 and 8-7. "We've got some hitters and we were able to come out on top today ... I didn't have good at-bats my first couple times up, so I was glad I was able to start a rally. In baseball, you get a couple of hits, a couple of doubles in a row, and people feed on that."
There was at least a possibility that the Beavers started looking ahead to the series against Washington after taking that early lead against the Vikings.
"That's always in the back of your mind," Bailie said. "But you see Washington State winning twice at Washington this weekend, and you see how anybody can beat anybody in this division."
Rob Colley had a two-run single later in the seventh inning and Schader and Bertrand added run-scoring singles as OSU took a 12-8 lead. In the Beavers' six-run eighth, Drew Hedges launched a two-run homer off the scoreboard in right-center field and Bertrand, Schader and Bailie had RBI singles.
Sunday's seventh and eighth innings capped terrific weeks at the plate for several Beavers. In five games, Bertrand was 11-for-23 with 11 RBIs, a homer, a triple and 3 doubles; Colley was just 5-for-22 but drove in 12 runs; and Hedges was 12-for-23 with 5 RBIs, a homer and 3 doubles.
PSU had jumped in front 1-0 in the first inning, then the Beavers came back with two runs in the second inning. OSU pushed the lead to 5-1 with a three-run third inning, getting run-scoring singles from Bailie and Lipe.
The Vikings jumped back into the game by scoring five times in the fourth inning, with four of those runs crossing the plate with two out. The big blows were a solo homer by Russ Riehl and a two-run single by Rusty Keith, and OSU had two errors in the inning.
But after coming back in the late innings and finishing the sweep of Portland State, the Beavers could finally begin thinking about 21st-ranked Washington's visit next weekend.
"We've seen them a couple of times," Bailie said, referring to tournaments in Florida and San Diego in which both teams participated but did not play each other. "They're a good club, and we're on a roll right now. We've just got to have a couple good days of practice; then we get them in our home yard, and that could be a bonus for us." OREGON STATE 18, PORTLAND STATE 8
Portland State 100 500 200 - 8 13 2Oregon State 023 101 56x - 18 19 4
Flohr, Faust (7), Woodward (8), Franklin (8) and Andrade. Cook, Boire (4), Mencas (7), Bronson (7), Bailie (9) and Bertrand, Bowring (9). WP-Bronson (1-0). LP-Flohr (4-5). 2B-Remington (PSU), Bertrand (OSU), Conley (OSU), Schader (OSU). HR-Riehl (PSU), Bailie (OSU), Hedges (OSU).
HITS: Portland State 13 (Remington 3-5, Ferres 3-5, Southall 1-3, Keith 1-3, Andrade 2-5, Rainwater 1-4, Riehl 1-5, Stewart 1-5), Oregon State 19 (Willkie 1-2, Colley 1-2, Bertrand 3-6, Bailie 3-5, Lipe 3-6, Hedges 2-4, Davis 1-3, Gerber 1-1, Conley 1-4, Schader 3-5). RUNS BATTED IN: Portland State 7 (Ferres 1, Southall 1, Keith 3, Rainwater 1, Riehl 1), Oregon State 15 (Colley 2, Bertrand 3, Bailie 3, Lipe 1, Hedges 2, Conley 1, Schader 3).
