Stutes Pitches OSU To 16-1 Baseball Win Over New Mexico
OSU now plays host to Cal Poly on Saturday at approximately
Friday against New Mexico (27-16, 9-4 Mountain West), a crowd of 1,910 saw Oregon State win for the 18th time in its last 21 games and improve its home record to 17-2 this season. It was the seventh time in the Beavers’ last nine games that they’ve held an opponent to two or fewer runs, and it was OSU’s eighth errorless game in its last 10.
Stutes walked two and struck out 11 in his eight innings, improving his record to 4-2 this season and lowering his earned run average to 2.60. The eight innings and 11 strikeouts were highs for the sophomore righthander’s OSU career; as a freshman at
“My arm started feeling good after about the third inning, so I wanted to stay out there for as long as I could,” Stutes said. “The warm weather helps, and knowing the defense is going to make all the plays. And getting 10 runs on the board by the end of the fifth inning makes it a lot easier for you to relax and throw strikes.”
After giving up a home run to Daniel Stovall that gave the Lobos a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning and then issuing a walk to Matt Foote, Stutes then retired 20 of the next 22 hitters he faced.
“I just tried to relax and throw more third strikes,” Stutes said. “I was kind of getting up in the zone before that, so I tried to focus on command instead of trying to throw as hard as I could ... once I got the curveball, it made things a lot easier because they had two pitches to worry about instead of only one.”
Stutes’ outing came against a
“One thing I liked about Mike is, he pitched very well against a very good offensive club,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “He got better, he pitched himself out of a couple situations, and he was consistent in being able to throw his second pitch for a strike. That’s a very good club offensively, and I was impressed with his effort.”
The Beavers evened the score when Gillespie homered to lead off the bottom of the second inning, driving the ball out just to the left of the trees beyond the fence in straightaway centerfield for his eighth homer of the season. OSU added Rowe’s run-scoring groundout and Chris Kunda’s run-scoring single by the end of the inning to put OSU up 3-1; the Beavers tacked on three more runs in the bottom of the third with Scott Santschi delivering a run-scoring single and John Wallace picking up a bases-loaded walk.
“We did a better job, and we got a little momentum going,” Casey said. “We just kind of rode with it and the guys did a good job.”
Canham’s sacrifice fly and Rowe’s two-run homer to right-center – his third-homer of the season - capped the Beavers’ three-run third inning for a 9-1 lead and Canham drew a bases-loaded walk in the fifth to make it 10-1. OSU added the final six runs in the seventh inning on five hits, three walks and a hit batter; Canham doubled home two runs and Santschi and Kunda delivered RBI singles.
Brian Budrow pitched the ninth for the Beavers, with the freshman righthander retiring the side in order and striking out one.
Darwin Barney was 3-for-4 with three runs for OSU, while Kunda was 3-for-5 with two RBIs, Rowe was 2-for-4 with the homer and three RBIs, Gillespie was 2-for-3 with the homer and four runs, and Santschi was 2-for-5 with two RBIs. Gillespie now has 53 runs this season, moving him onto OSU’s all-time list of single-season leaders in that category in sixth place.
For
NO. 6
Melek, Lankford (4), Bates (6), McKee (7), Salazar (7) and McDonald. Stutes, Budrow (9) and Canham, Ammon (9). W-Stutes (4-2). L-Melek (5-5). 2B-Canham (OSU). HR-Stovall (UNM), Gillespie (OSU), Rowe (OSU).
HITS: New Mexico 4 (Pacheco 1x4, Russell 1x4, Carlson 1x4, Stovall 1x4), Oregon State 15 (Barney 3x4, Gillespie 2x3, Canham 1x3, McFeely 1x5, Rowe 2x4, Santschi 2x5, Kunda 3x5). RUNS BATTED IN:
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Russell, Jay lf............ 4 0 1 0 Lissman, Mike ph.......... 0 0 0 0
Carlson, Chris dh.......... 4 0 1 0 Graham,
Stovall, Daniel 1b......... 4 1 1 1 Kahalehoe, Koa pr/cf...... 1 1 0 1
Foote, Matt cf............. 2 0 0 0 Barney,
Hollick, Ian 3b............ 4 0 0 0 Gillespie, Cole lf......... 3 4 2 1
McDonald, Drew c........... 3 0 0 0 Canham, Mitch c............ 3 2 1 4
Hamilton, Dane rf.......... 3 0 0 0 Ammon, Erik c............. 0 0 0 0
Barba, Ryan ss............. 3 0 0 0 McFeely, Shea 3b........... 5 2 1 1
Melek, Nate p.............. 0 0 0 0 Rowe, Bill 1b.............. 4 2 2 3
Lankford, Chace p......... 0 0 0 0 Santschi, Scott rf......... 5 1 2 2
Bates, Aaron p............ 0 0 0 0 Wagner, Geoff ph/rf....... 1 0 0 0
McKee, Sean p............. 0 0 0 0 Kunda, Chris 2b............ 5 0 3 2
Salazar, Jordan p......... 0 0 0 0 Stutes, Mike p............. 0 0 0 0
Budrow, Brian p........... 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 31 1 4 1 Totals..................... 38 16 15 15
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
New Mexico.......... 010 000 000 - 1 4 1
-------------------------------------------
E - Barba. LOB -
Rowe. HBP - Wallace; Gillespie. SF - Canham; McFeely.
------------------------------------------------
Melek, Nate L,5-5......... 3.0 6 8 6 6 1
Lankford, Chace ........... 2.0 2 2 2 2 0
Bates, Aaron .............. 1.1 4 4 4 0 0
McKee, Sean ............... 0.1 2 2 2 3 0
------------------------------------------------
Stutes, Mike W,4-2........ 8.0 4 1 1 2 11
Budrow, Brian ............. 1.0 0 0 0 0 1
WP - Melek; Stutes. HBP - by Lankford (Wallace); by Bates (Gillespie).
Umpires - HP: Terry Fischer 1B: Scott Eastburn 3B: Todd Ellis
Start:
Melek faced 2 batters in the 4th.
