Kunda Delivers Win With Bat For No. 8 OSU
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Chris Kunda’s two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead Oregon State (49-14) to a 5-3 win over Wright State on Friday evening in the first round of the NCAA Corvallis Regional baseball tournament at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. OSU (40-14 overall) will play
Approximately 600 tickets remain for the game between
Kunda – named the Pacific-10 Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year earlier this week for his play at second base – won Friday’s game with his bat rather than his glove for the Beavers before a crowd of 2,587. After watching pair of strikes from Raider closer Joe Smith, Kunda fouled off a pitch and then watched a ball before driving Smith’s next delivery into the gap in left-centerfield for the decisive runs. Tyler Graham had walked to start the two-out rally, then stole second to prompt WSU to deliver an intentional walk to Scott Santschi.
“Anytime I can contribute to the success of our offense, I’m happy. The other guys are doing a great job right now and we are looking to keep this going,” Kunda said. “My first at bat he got ahead of me – he tried to go slider away from me my first at-bat. I had that same approach (the second at-bat), he was going to come with the same pitch. It seemed like that was his ‘go-to’ pitch to get somebody out. Luckily he left it out over the plate and I was able to hit it where they weren’t playing.”
The Beavers, the champions of the Pac-10, were able to beat the Raiders, the Horizon League tourney champs, by picking up the runs against Smith, who had entered the game with a 3-0 record, 12 saves and a 0.75 earned run average.
“I thought
“In the regionals, it is such a fine line to win. Everybody is amped up, anybody can beat anybody. I thought our club responded to their energy and our club really did some things well down the stretch.”
“First I want to tip my hat to Pat Casey and the Oregon State Beavers,”
“The thing we told our guys going into this was to have a lot of fun and to play each pitch. If you can get to the next one, good things will happen. Our guys did that, in the ninth inning we brought the tying run to the plate.”
That came as Beaver closer Kevin Gunderson – earlier in the day named as one of five finalists for the national Stopper of the Year award – walked pinch-hitter Paul Majestic to lead off the ninth inning. But Gunderson retired the next three hitters to earn his 16th save of the season.
Eddie Kunz was credited with the pitching win for his two scoreless innings of relief work, allowing one hit and striking out one to improve his record to 5-1 this season. Beaver starter Dallas Buck went the first six innings, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks while striking out seven; he worked out of trouble several times as Wright State left seven runners on against him and four of those were in scoring position.
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Earlier in the day, Buck had been named to the Louisville Slugger All-America team as a second-team pick, as selected by Collegiate Baseball newspaper; teammate Cole Gillespie was named to the first team as an outfielder. Gillespie opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning, his 12th of the season. The Beavers got two more run in the fourth on Darwin Barney's bases-loaded single.
Player AB R H RBI BB SO
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OEDER, Ross 2b........... 3 1 0 0 1 0 1 2 1 Barney, Darwin ss........ 5 0 2 2 0 0 0 4 0
BIEDENHARN, Dan 3b....... 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 Wallace, John dh......... 4 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 0
GARCIA, Aaron c.......... 5 0 2 0 0 1 5 1 1 Gillespie, Cole lf....... 3 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
ABUSALEH, Amin rf........ 3 0 1 2 1 1 3 1 1 Canham, Mitch c.......... 4 0 0 0 0 2 7 2 3
SHOUP, Brian dh.......... 4 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Rowe, Bill 1b............ 3 1 0 0 1 0 12 0 0
HAMILTON, Jeremy 1b...... 3 0 0 0 0 2 12 0 0 Graham,
PARKER, Justin ss........ 4 1 1 1 0 1 2 3 1 Santschi, Scott rf....... 2 1 1 0 2 0 0 0 0
KOPILCHACK, John cf...... 3 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 1 Kunda, Chris 2b.......... 4 0 2 2 0 0 3 3 2
MAJESTIC, Paul ph....... 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Buck,
MIGLIORINI, Travis pr... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Kunz, Eddie p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
BARRETT, Robert p........ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gunderson, Kevin p...... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
SMITH, Joe p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0
Totals................... 33 3 7 3 3 8 24 12 9 Totals................... 30 5 9 5 4 4 27 14 8
Score by Innings R H E
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E - BARRETT; Barney; McFeely. DP -
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BARRETT, Robert..... 5.0 6 3 3 3 3 21 25 Buck, Dallas........ 6.0 6 3 3 2 7 23 28
SMITH, Joe.......... 3.0 3 2 2 1 1 9 12 Kunz, Eddie......... 2.0 1 0 0 0 1 7 7
Gunderson, Kevin.... 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 3 4
Win - Kunz (5-1). Loss - SMITH (3-1). Save - Gunderson (16).
HBP - by Buck (OEDER); by BARRETT (Gillespie); by SMITH (McFeely); by SMITH (Graham). BK - BARRETT; Buck. PB - Canham.
Umpires - HP: Scott Inman 1B: Mike Cerra 2B: Fred Canon 3B: Jack Cox
Start: 5:06 PM Time:
Schweitzer nearly added another home run in the eighth when he led off the inning with a deep fly ball that was caught at the warning track in left-center field. He finished 4-for-5 with two RBIs. Erik Morrison and Ryne Price also homered for the Jayhawks (43-23). Matt Daly (6-1) was the loser. Player AB R H RBI BB SO ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ Wilder, Robbie lf........ 3 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 0 Baty, Matt cf............ 5 0 1 1 0 1 5 0 3 DuPree, Derek cf......... 5 0 2 0 0 2 0 0 1 Murphy, Kyle cf......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Frash, Justin 3b......... 3 0 0 1 2 1 3 2 0 Price, Ritchie ss........ 4 3 2 0 0 0 1 2 1 Inouye, Matt rf.......... 3 1 1 1 2 2 5 0 0 Milner, Gus rf........... 4 0 1 1 0 1 3 0 1 Lopez, Esteban c......... 3 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 3 Allman, John lf.......... 5 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 1 Asato, Ryan ph.......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Morrison, Erik 3b........ 5 1 2 3 0 1 0 2 0 Spiers, Joe pr.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Simpson, Brock dh........ 5 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 Christensen, Eli ss...... 4 1 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 Price, Ryne 2b........... 3 1 1 1 1 1 1 3 0 Sanchez, Kris dh......... 5 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 1 Afenir, Buck c........... 3 1 2 1 1 0 5 2 2 Hee, Jonathan 2b......... 4 1 2 1 0 0 1 2 0 Faunce, Nick pr......... 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Costi, Justin p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Parzyk, Dylan c......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 Daly, Matt p............ 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Quick, Kodiak p.......... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 Fisherbaugh, Darrell p.. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Smyth, Paul p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Czyz, Don p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Totals................... 36 6 9 5 6 7 24 6 11 Totals................... 39 9 16 9 2 6 27 12 10 Score by Innings R H E ------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------- E - Price, Ri.; Morrison. DP - Schweitzer; Morrison; Price, Ry.; Afenir. HBP - Wilder; Price, Ri.. SH - Lopez. SF - Milner. ----------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------- Costi, Justin....... 3.1 8 4 4 2 2 18 21 Quick, Kodiak....... 5.0 7 5 5 5 2 20 27 Daly, Matt.......... 2.0 2 2 2 0 1 7 8 McNamara, Brendan... 2.0 0 0 0 0 3 7 7 Davis, Fisherbaugh, Darrell 1.0 2 0 0 0 2 5 5 Czyz, Don........... 1.1 0 0 0 0 1 5 5 Win - McNamara (3-2). Loss - Daly (6-1). Save - Czyz, D. (19). WP - Davis; Quick 3; Czyz, D.. HBP - by Quick (Wilder); by Costi (Price, Ri.). PB - Afenir. Umpires - HP: David Buck 1B: Mark Lewis 2B: Mike Cerra 3B: Fred Cannon Start: 12:01 PM Time:
