OSU Completes Weekend Baseball Sweep With 8-2 Win Over New Mexico

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Darwin Barney and John Wallace had three hits each for Oregon State as the No. 6-ranked Beavers beat New Mexico 8-2 in non-conference baseball Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. Daniel Turpen, making his first start of the season, pitched a career-high 6 2/3 innings to earn the win for OSU (32-10 overall, 9-3 Pacific-10).

The Beavers conclude their current homestand next weekend with a Pac-10 series against Washington, with games Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Games can be heard on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area and KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area, and Saturday’s game will be televised live regionally by Fox Sports Net. Live audio and video will also be available via subscription on the internet at .

With Sunday's other results in the Pac-10, Oregon State goes into the final four weeks of the season in first place in the conference race, two games ahead of Southern California.

Against New Mexico (27-18, 9-4 Mountain West), the Beavers won for the 20th time in their last 23 games and improved to 19-2 at home this season. It was Oregon State’s fourth straight win of the weekend against a pair of teams in contention for postseason play – Cal Poly and New Mexico - after the Beavers had suffered a 20-13, 12-inning home loss to Portland on Tuesday.

“That made us want to win all four games this weekend and play as hard as we could so we could keep our ranking up and keep in good shape for getting back into the Pac-10 next week,” OSU third baseman Shea McFeely said.

Added Beaver head coach Pat Casey: “The guys did a really good job of staying with it. We played two very good clubs (New Mexico and Cal Poly) and we had to pitch and play defense, and we really defended all weekend long. We called on Turp to give us a start and it was his first start all year, and he did a great job. We thought if we could get four or five innings out of Turp then we could piece it together, but he gave us a really good start.”

With the win in front of 1,869 fans, Oregon State improved to 19-2 at home this season. OSU allowed two or fewer runs for the eighth time in its last 11 games, and it played errorless defense for the ninth time in its last 12 games.

“Darwin (shortstop) and Chris (Kunda, second baseman) and Shea (McFeely, third baseman) and Bill (Rowe, first baseman) – the whole infield is playing well enough that you get a groundball and they can turn two,” Casey said. “And we swung the bat well enough and put enough runs on the board that we felt pretty good at the end.”

Turpen improved to 2-0 this season; he’d also won in relief at Portland on April 11. He found out about 2 1/2 hours prior to Sunday’s game that he’d be the starter.

“It was definitely a good surprise – it put a smile on my face,” the sophomore righthander said. In his 6 2/3 innings, Turpen allowed two runs on seven hits and no walks while striking out two; he needed just 20 pitches to get through the first three innings against the Lobos.

“I’m not a strikeout pitcher,” Turpen said. “I’ve got to go after the guys and get the ground balls. I haven’t started and I know I’m probably on a pitch count, so I was just trying to go out there and get them out as early as I could.”

OSU gave Turpen a 3-0 lead to work with in the bottom of the second inning as Rowe led off with a double, Mitch Canham and Ryan Gipson drove in runs with singles and Kunda added a sacrifice fly. New Mexico nicked Turpen for a run on a pair of hits in the top of the third, but the Beavers picked up an unearned run in the fifth and then scored four times in the eighth as Wallace singled home a run and Barney followed with a two-run single to make it 8-1.

Oregon State finished with 14 hits on the day. Barney was 3-for-4 with a double, Wallace was 3-for-5, McFeely and Scott Santschi were 2-for-3 and Canham was 2-for-4.

“We’re getting good swings and getting on base,” McFeely said. “No one’s been selfish and trying to get hits for themselves; they’re doing it for the team. We’ve been seeing the ball a lot better and hitting it hard – even the outs, we’ve been hitting it hard.”

Joe Paterson followed Turpen with an inning of scoreless relief before Eddie Kunz pitched the final 1 2/3 innings.

NO. 6 OREGON STATE 8, NEW MEXICO 2

New Mexico 001 000 100 – 2 10 3

Oregon State 030 014 00X – 8 14 0

Perez, Andes (6) and Arnett. Turpen, Paterson (7), Kunz (8) and Canham. W-Turpen (2-0). L-Perez (2-1). 2B-Carlson (UNM), Hollick (UNM), Hamilton (UNM), Barney (OSU), Rowe (OSU).

HITS: New Mexico 10 (Carlson 2x4, Stovall 2x4, Foote 1x4, Hollick 2x4, Hamilton 1x4, Arnett 1x3, Barba 1x3), Oregon State 14 (Wallace 3x5, Barney 3x4, Rowe 1x5, Canham 2x4, McFeely 2x3, Santschi 2x3, Gipson 1x3). RUNS BATTED IN: New Mexico 2 (Arnett 1, Barba 1), Oregon State 7 (Kunda 1, Wallace 1, Barney 2, Gillespie 1, Canham 1, Gipson 1).

New Mexico 2 (27-18) Oregon State 8 (32-10)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------

Pacheco, Jordan 2b......... 4 0 0 0 Kunda, Chris 2b............ 3 1 0 1

Russell, Jay lf............ 3 0 0 0 Wallace, John cf........... 5 1 3 1

Carlson, Chris 1b.......... 4 0 2 0 Barney, Darwin ss.......... 4 0 3 2

Stovall, Daniel dh......... 4 0 2 0 Gillespie, Cole lf......... 5 0 0 1

Foote, Matt cf............. 4 0 1 0 Rowe, Bill 1b.............. 5 1 1 0

Hollick, Ian 3b............ 4 1 2 0 Canham, Mitch c............ 4 1 2 1

Hamilton, Dane rf.......... 4 1 1 0 McFeely, Shea 3b........... 3 2 2 0

Arnett, Zach c............. 3 0 1 1 Santschi, Scott rf......... 3 1 2 0

Barba, Ryan ss............. 3 0 1 1 Gipson, Ryan dh............ 3 1 1 1

Perez, Jesse p............. 0 0 0 0 Wagner, Geoff ph.......... 1 0 0 0

Andes, Quentin p.......... 0 0 0 0 Turpen, Daniel p........... 0 0 0 0

Paterson, Joe p........... 0 0 0 0

Kunz, Eddie p............. 0 0 0 0

Totals..................... 33 2 10 2 Totals..................... 36 8 14 7

Score by Innings R H E

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New Mexico.......... 001 000 100 - 2 10 3

Oregon State........ 030 014 00X - 8 14 0

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E - Carlson; Barba; Perez. DP - New Mexico 1; Oregon St. 2. LOB - New Mexico 6;

Oregon St. 9. 2B - Carlson; Hollick; Hamilton; Barney; Rowe. SH - Arnett; Kunda;

Santschi. CS - Barba; Barney.

New Mexico IP H R ER BB SO

------------------------------------------------

Perez, Jesse L,2-1........ 5.1 11 8 6 3 1

Andes, Quentin ............ 2.2 3 0 0 0 1

Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO

------------------------------------------------

Turpen, Daniel W,2-0...... 6.1 7 2 2 0 2

Paterson, Joe ............. 1.0 1 0 0 1 1

Kunz, Eddie ............... 1.2 2 0 0 0 0

WP - Perez; Andes. PB - Arnett.

Umpires - HP: Terry Fischer 1B: Scott Eastburn 3B: Todd Ellis

Start: 1:05 PM Time: 2:29 Attendance: 1869