No. 9 OSU Opens Series With Shutout
The Beavers and Bears (17-18, 2-5) continue their series Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. All both games can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the
On Friday, the Beavers won their third straight game and posted their fourth shutout of the season. Stutes and Kunz outdueled
“When you’re facing the guys going every Friday night, I’m looking at it going, ‘Ross, this guy is 6-foot-6 and he throws hard,’” Stutes said. “I know I’m going to have to come out and hopefully throw a shutout. I knew it was going to be a tight game tonight because I’ve played against Ross a couple times, and he’s been great every time I’ve played against him.”
Stutes improved his record to 8-1 this season, going 7 1/3 innings and allowing three hits and four walks while striking out six. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning.
“I was feeling good. I just tried to come out and build off last week’s start,” Stutes said. “I was trying to get the off-speed stuff over early and just work from there.”
The Beavers helped Stutes out with four tough plays in the early going. In the second inning, rightfielder Scott Santschi made a sliding catch to take a hit away from Jordan Karnofsky and second baseman Joey Wong added a diving stop and quick throw to rob Michael Capbarat. In the third, it was centerfielder Chris Hopkins going to the centerfield fence and making a twisting catch on a ball hit by Blake Smith; shortstop Darwin Barney then dove to his left to make a grab and then throw out Michael Brady.
“That just adds to it,” Stutes said of the defense played behind him. “When they’re playing like that – which they usually are when I’m pitching – if I can get my rhythm going then we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”
Stutes made a play of his own to help the Beavers out of a jam in the top of the sixth inning with the score still 0-0, when he walked the first two hitters he faced. Brett Munster then tried to sacrifice the runners over but Stutes pounced on his bunt and threw to third baseman Drew George to retire the lead runner.
“We work on those every day,” Stutes said of the play. “(Volunteer assistant coach) Kurt Steele works with us on PFP (pitchers fielding position) every day in practice; I was just trying to carry practice into the game and I just reacted.”
Ross, who had entered the game with a 2.23 earned run average and hadn’t allowed Pac-10 leader
“I just wanted to make sure the ball was down, because I didn’t want to get doubled off,” Canham said. “Once it got by, it was smooth sailing all the way in.”
Kunz entered the game with a runner at second and one out in the eighth and got a pair of groundouts to end the inning. In the ninth, he allowed just a two-out bloop single en route to his fifth save of the season.
“It’s huge,” Stutes said of winning the first game of the series. “Right now, we’re sitting in a position where we have to win pretty much every series, because going into the season all we were going for is the Pac-10 championship. We’re in the position right now where we need to win games on a consistent basis, so any time you can take a Pac-10 game, it’s huge.”
OSU’s last 1-0 win had been April 14 of last season, when Dallas Buck and Kevin Gunderson blanked Stanford in a home game. OSU has now beaten
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Jeff Kobernus lf........... 2 0 1 0 Chris Hopkins cf........... 3 0 1 0
Craig Bennigson p......... 0 0 0 0 Koa Kahalehoe lf/rf........ 4 0 1 0
Brett Munster 3b........... 3 0 0 0
David Cooper 1b........... 3 0 0 0 Mitch Canham c............. 3 1 1 0
Josh Satin 2b.............. 4 0 0 0 Mike Lissman dh............ 3 0 1 1
Jordan Karnofsky dh........ 3 0 1 0
Brett Jackson pr/cf....... 0 0 0 0 Scott Santschi rf.......... 3 0 1 0
Ryan Hanlon lf............ 1 0 0 0 Braden Wells ph/lf........ 1 0 0 0
Michael Capbarat cf/rf..... 3 0 1 0 Drew George 3b............. 3 0 0 0
Blake Smith rf/p........... 4 0 1 0 Dale Solomon ph........... 0 0 0 0
Michael Brady ss........... 3 0 0 0 Lonnie Lechelt pr/3b...... 0 0 0 0
Charlie Cutler c........... 1 0 0 0 Joey Wong 2b............... 2 0 0 0
Tyson Ross p............... 0 0 0 0 Mike Stutes p.............. 0 0 0 0
Eddie Kunz p.............. 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 27 0 4 0 Totals..................... 29 1 7 1
Score by Innings R H E
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California.......... 000 000 000 - 0 4 0
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LOB -
Capbarat; Lissman. CS - Cooper; Lechelt.
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Tyson Ross L,3-5.......... 6.0 6 1 1 4 8
Blake Smith ............... 1.1 0 0 0 0 1
Craig Bennigson ........... 0.2 1 0 0 1 1
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Mike Stutes W,8-1......... 7.1 3 0 0 4 6
Eddie Kunz S,5............ 1.2 1 0 0 0 1
WP - Bennigson; Ross. BK - Ross.
Umpires - HP: Heath Jones 1B: Tim Vessey 3B: Kevin Daugherty
Start: 5:03 pm Time: 3:18 Attendance: 1835
