OSU To Play For NCAA Corvallis Regional Title
The Beavers are now guaranteed a chance to play for the championship.
There are approximately 600 tickets – including a limited number of reserved seats – remaining for Sunday’s games and they can be purchased at the ballpark. Sales for the game between
OSU’s game Sunday can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the
In front of Saturday’s sellout crowd of 2,967, Nickerson fanned eight in his 7 2/3 innings of work to give him 273 for his career, surpassing the 267 strikeouts that Mason Smith had from 1991-94. Nickerson retired the first 11 hitters he faced until issuing a fourth-inning walk, and he didn’t allow a hit until Brock Simpson’s two-out solo homer in the top of the fifth.
By then, OSU had gone up 9-0. Kunda’s three-run homer to left-center capped the Beavers’ seven-run second inning, then he added a two-run drive over the leftfield fence in the bottom of the fourth to chase
“We beat a very good team tonight,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “Jonah Nickerson pitched great and we were able to get a little momentum with that big inning.”
Nickerson tied and broke the record with back-to-back strikeouts to start the top of the second inning, getting both Gus Milner and Erik Morrison looking.
"Our plan at the beginning was just to go after them with fastballs,” Nickerson said. “We thought if I could locate the fastball and get some early swings, I could go deeper into the game. It seemed to work outmost of the game. I guess I got a little away from it later on. That's when I started having some trouble.”
Nickerson, who improved his record to 10-4 this season with the win, gave up another solo homer to Ryne Price to start the eighth inning. He and Kevin Gunderson wound up combining on a four-hitter for the victory.
“We kind of got buried at the beginning of the game,”
“We have seen a lot of good arms over the course of the season, but he (Nickerson) is as good as we have seen. He is as good as advertised. I was told before the series he was probably going to be a second- or third-round draft choice; he did a really nice job today. I was somewhat surprised he was able to dominate us with his fastball; he didn’t use his breaking ball much. We didn’t do a very good job handling his fastball.”
When Kunda homered in the second, it was his first home run since
“I don't know - I guess I'm just seeing the ball well,” Kunda said. “Everything that's coming in is big as a beach ball, as a lot of guys like to say. I'm just thankful that I put the fat part of the bat on the ball and two of them happened to carry out.”
Added Casey: “He is just seeing the ball really well right now. He is doing a great job for us. We had him hit in the nine-hole (in the batting order) yesterday and the two-hole tonight. You look back at some of the World Series of late and you see a lot of second basemen who have come up big at the plate.”
The Beavers’ seven-run second inning got its start when Tyler Graham legged out an infield single on a ball hit into the hole between second and third base, then stole second. After Mitch Canham reached on an error, Mike Lissman blooped a double into rightfield to drive in the game’s first run, Bill Rowe walked to load the bases, Ryan Gipson walked to force in a run, and Darwin Barney singled up the middle to drive in two runs; Kunda then unloaded his first homer to wrap up the inning’s scoring.
After Kunda’s second homer in the fourth inning, the Beavers got their final runs on Cole Gillespie’s two-run double down the leftfield line in the bottom of the eighth. It was Gillespie’s third double of the game, tying the OSU single-game record; that had last been accomplished by Kunda on April 1 in the second game of a doubleheader against Texas-Pan American. Kunda’s two-homer game was the Beavers’ first since Danny Anderson homered twice against
Player AB R H RBI BB SO
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Baty, Matt cf............ 4 1 1 0 0 0 5 0 2 .294 Barney, Darwin ss........ 4 1 1 2 0 1 2 3 2 .347
Price, Ritchie ss........ 4 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 0 .288 Kunda, Chris 2b.......... 5 2 2 5 0 0 1 2 0 .297
Schweitzer, Jared 1b..... 2 0 0 0 2 1 10 0 0 .364 Gillespie, Cole lf....... 4 0 3 2 1 0 0 0 0 .378
Milner, Gus rf........... 3 0 0 0 1 3 3 0 1 .327 McFeely, Shea 3b......... 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 .295
Allman, John lf.......... 4 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 .335 Graham,
Morrison, Erik 3b........ 4 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 3 .295 Canham, Mitch c.......... 4 1 0 0 0 0 8 0 0 .289
Simpson, Brock dh........ 4 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 .294 Lissman, Mike dh......... 4 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 .325
Price, Ryne 2b........... 4 1 1 1 0 0 2 1 0 .256 Rowe, Bill 1b............ 2 2 1 0 2 1 7 1 0 .319
Afenir, Buck c........... 2 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 .274 Gipson, Ryan rf.......... 2 2 1 1 1 0 2 0 0 .213
Land, Preston c......... 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .314 Santschi, Scott rf...... 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .293
Land, Sean p............. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - Nickerson, Jonah p....... 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 -
Marks, Andy p........... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 - Gunderson, Kevin p...... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 -
Hayakawa, Ryotaro p..... 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 -
Totals................... 32 3 4 3 4 8 24 10 6 Totals................... 34 11 11 11 5 2 27 6 5
Score by Innings R H E
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E - Schweitzer; Rowe. DP -
Simpson; Price, Ry.; Kunda 2. SH - Barney. SB - Graham; Lissman.
----------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------
Land, Sean.......... 3.1 7 9 8 2 2 18 20 5.56 Nickerson, Jonah.... 7.2 3 3 3 4 8 27 31 2.67
Marks, Andy......... 3.2 3 2 2 3 0 13 16 5.35 Gunderson, Kevin.... 1.1 1 0 0 0 0 5 5 2.40
Hayakawa, Ryotaro... 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 3 4 5.85
Win - Nickerson (10-4). Loss - Land, S. (5-7). Save - None.
Umpires - HP: Mike Cerra 1B: Jack Cox 2B: David Buck 3B: Scott Inman
Start: 6:02 PM Time:
