Stutes Pitches No. 5 OSU Past Washington 7-1 In Baseball Series Finale

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State pitcher Mike Stutes didn't allow an earned run in eight-plus innings as the No. 5-ranked Beavers beat Washington 7-1in Pacific-10 baseball Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. Cole Gillespie and Shea McFeely drove in three runs each for OSU (34-11 overall, 11-4 Pac-10), which increased its lead in the conference standings to 2 1/2 games.

Oregon State now goes to No. 19-ranked Arizona State for a series next Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Beavers lead Southern California by 2 1/2 games and ASU and UCLA by three games.

“We’ve got to go on the road for six games now,” said OSU head coach Pat Casey, whose team travels to Washington State after visiting ASU. “And in this conference, that’s like hiking through a blizzard for three miles with very little clothing. We know what we’ve got to do, and it’s going to be difficult. Those are back-to-back long trips.”

The start of Sunday’s game was delayed 2 hours, 51 minutes by rain and then was delayed again 57 minutes by rain in the bottom of the sixth inning. When it was over, Oregon State had won for the 22nd time in its last 26 games and improved its home record this season to 21-3.

When the contest finally began in front of a damp crowd of 881, Stutes set the Huskies (31-19, 9-9) down in order in the top of the first inning. The Beavers then came up with four runs against UW righthander Elliott Cribby in the bottom of the first, getting a run-scoring fielder’s choice by Gillespie, a run-scoring double from Mitch Canham and a two-run double by McFeely.

“Today we did some good things, we got on the board early, and I’m just really proud of our club,” Casey said. “After losing the first game of the series at home against arguably one of the best guys in the country (UW pitcher Tim Lincecum on Friday), that can turn your momentum a little bit. We came Saturday and set the tone that we weren’t going to break, and I think our guys were outstanding. For all the things you’ve got to do to win a series in this conference, it’s a bear.”

Stutes worked into the ninth inning before giving way to relievers Joe Paterson, Eddie Kunz and Kevin Gunderson as the OSU staff combined on a four-hitter, with the only Washington run being unearned. In his eight innings, Stutes allowed the one unearned run on three hits and four walks while striking out eight as he improved his record to 5-2 and lowered his earned run average to 2.25.

“I hope we can make that routine – that was fun,” Stutes said of the long outing. “I was kind of surprised, because my arm didn’t feel as good as it did before (the sixth-inning delay). Sitting there for an hour, I got a little stiff but I just went down to the bullpen and got loosened up a little bit. I wanted to go out there, I told the coaches I wanted to stay in there.”

Said Casey: “We said when we had the delay that we’d shut him down, and if it was less than an hour then he’d play catch and tell us how he feels. He just said, ‘There’s no way I’m coming out’. I thought he was very good – I mean, wow. That’s a good club that he handcuffed for a lot of innings.”

OSU led 5-0 when the game was delayed with Darwin Barney at the plate against Washington reliever Bryce Mooney – a high school teammate of Stutes’ at Lake Oswego High near Portland - and runners at second and third with two out. After Barney walked, Gillespie singled off the glove of diving UW shortstop Danny Cox to drive in two runs and make it 7-0. Stutes then retired the Huskies in order on eight pitches in the top of the seventh; in the eighth, he gave up a walk and a hit but struck out Zach Clem looking to end the inning with two runners on.

“Our defense played great today, just like it has for every other game,” Stutes said. “That’s really big to go out on the mound and know that you can let them put the ball in play and it’s going to be caught. Scott Santschi made that diving catch in rightfield to save a run, (catcher) Mitch Canham stopped some balls that could have moved guys up – it’s just nice having a defense behind you that you know is going to make the play every time.”

Oregon State limited an opponent to two or fewer runs for the ninth time in its last 14 games. After committing one error on Sunday, the Beavers have committed one or fewer errors in 19 of their last 21 games.

“I thought we had a chance to knock them out early and score a ton of runs, but we left a few runners in scoring position,” Casey said of the Beavers, who left five runners at second or third base. “But we talked about this ever since last fall, that if we do the little things right and defend and pitch, we’re always going to have a chance.”

McFeely was 2-for-4 with the double and three runs batted in for OSU, while Canham was also 2-for-4 with a double. Gillespie was 1-for-3 but also reached base on a walk and was hit by a pitch; for the series, he was 4-for-9 with one home run, one double, seven RBIs, four runs scored, three walks, two hit-by-pitch and three stolen bases.

NO. 5 OREGON STATE 7, WASHINGTON 1

Washington 000 000 001 – 1 4 2

Oregon State 400 012 00x – 7 9 1

Cribby, Mooney (6), Haughian (8), Kasser (8) and Lane. Stutes, Paterson (9), Kunz (9), Gunderson (9) and Canham. W-Stutes (5-2). L-Cribby (6-5). 2B-Canham (OSU), McFeely (OSU).

HITS: Washington 4 (Hague 1x4, Lane 1x4, Petersen 1x1, Rickard 1x2), Oregon State 9 (Kunda 1x4, Wallace 1x4, Gillespie 1x3, Canham 2x4, McFeely 2x4, Rowe 1x4, Lissman 1x4). RUNS BATTED IN: Washington 1 (Stevens 1), Oregon State 7 (Gillespie 3, Canham 1, McFeely 3).

Washington 1 (31-19,9-9 PAC-10) Oregon State 7 (34-11,11-4 PAC-10)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

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

Rife, Jake cf.............. 4 0 0 0 Kunda, Chris 2b............ 4 2 1 0

Hague, Matt dh............. 4 0 1 0 Wallace, John cf........... 4 2 1 0

Clem, Zach lf.............. 3 0 0 0 Barney, Darwin ss.......... 2 0 0 0

Rindal, Curt 1b............ 3 1 0 0 Gillespie, Cole lf......... 3 2 1 3

Lane, Matt c............... 4 0 1 0 Canham, Mitch c............ 4 1 2 1

Anderson, Ryan 2b.......... 4 0 0 0 McFeely, Shea 3b........... 4 0 2 3

Cox, Danny ss.............. 2 0 0 0 Rowe, Bill 1b.............. 4 0 1 0

Petersen, Trevor ph....... 1 0 1 0 Lissman, Mike dh........... 4 0 1 0

Stevens, Matt 3b........... 2 0 0 1 Santschi, Scott rf......... 3 0 0 0

Rickard, Cory rf........... 2 0 1 0 Stutes, Mike p............. 0 0 0 0

Boyer, Bradley ph......... 1 0 0 0 Paterson, Joe p........... 0 0 0 0

Cribby, Elliott p.......... 0 0 0 0 Kunz, Eddie p............. 0 0 0 0

Mooney, Bryce p........... 0 0 0 0 Gunderson, Kevin p........ 0 0 0 0

Haughian, Nick p.......... 0 0 0 0

Kasser, Matt p............ 0 0 0 0

Totals..................... 30 1 4 1 Totals..................... 32 7 9 7

Score by Innings R H E

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

Washington 000 000 001 - 1 4 2

Oregon State 400 012 00x - 7 9 1

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

E - Lane; Stevens; Rowe. DP - Washington 1. LOB - Washington 8; Oregon St. 9. 2B -

Canham; McFeely. HBP - Clem; Wallace; Gillespie. SH - Barney. SF - Stevens. SB -

Gillespie; Santschi.

Washington IP H R ER BB SO

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

Cribby, Elliott L,6-5..... 5.0 7 5 4 2 3

Mooney, Bryce ............. 2.0 2 2 2 1 2

Haughian, Nick ............ 0.2 0 0 0 1 2

Kasser, Matt .............. 0.1 0 0 0 1 0

Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO

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

Stutes, Mike W,5-2........ 8.0 3 1 0 4 8

Paterson, Joe ............. 0.1 1 0 0 0 1

Kunz, Eddie ............... 0.1 0 0 0 0 0

Gunderson, Kevin .......... 0.1 0 0 0 0 0

WP - Mooney. HBP - by Cribby (Gillespie); by Stutes (Clem); by Mooney (Wallace). PB -

Lane.

Umpires - HP: Kelly Gonzales 1B: Joe Burleson 3B: Ruben Candelaria

Start: 3:51 pm Time: 2:38 Attendance: 881

Stutes faced 1 batter in the 9th.

Start of game delayed 2 hours, 51 minutes by rain. Bottom of sixth inning,

game delayed 57 minutes by rain.