No. 9 OSU Wins Series By Beating Cal, 5-3
The Beavers now play host to Nevada-Las Vegas in a non-confrence series next weekend, with games Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. All three games can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the
On Sunday, the Beavers fell behind 2-0 in the top of the first inning. George’s homer – the first in his OSU career – evened the score in the bottom of the second inning and ended a string of 13 straight scoreless innings for the Beavers at the plate.
“It was a pitch at a time this weekend,” Casey said. “The Pac-10 is brutal. It’s just a good conference, and if you do anything wrong, somebody is going to capitalize on it. We just haven’t swung the bat well enough to separate ourselves by enough runs to be comfortable. I think our kids are pressing a little bit.”
The Beavers had scored just one run in the first 18 innings of the series, winning 1-0 on Friday night and then losing 4-0 on Saturday afternoon. In the bottom of the second, George came to the plate and with two out and Jordan Lennerton at first base; on a one-ball, two-strike count, he drove a pitch from
“I was just trying to make contact with a guy at third base,” George said. “I didn’t want to end the inning without getting that run in. The guy hung a curveball, and I just hit it well. It’s my first home run at
George had been struggling in Pac-10 play, batting just .138 in conference games, but Sunday he was 2-for-2 and also walked twice. His homer started three straight innings in which the Beavers scored.
“Any time you hit a home run – anybody on the team – it’s going to lift the team,” George said. “It got the bats going a little bit. I definitely needed that boost for myself; I’ve been struggling a little bit and just trying to stay confident and get my hacks when I’m in there.”
Maxwell came on to start the fourth inning for OSU after starter Daniel Turpen gave up two runs on six hits and a walk in the first three innings. Maxwell improved his record to 3-0 this season; in his four innings, he allowed one run on two hits and no walks while striking out three.
“I felt like I had good stuff,” Maxwell said. “I’ve been working hard trying to get my velocity back up, and it’s been coming back and coming around. I feel good, my body feels good, and that’s the main thing – as long as my body is feeling good, mentally, it helps.”
Maxwell surrendered the run that tied the game 3-3 in the top of the third on a single, wild pitch, sacrifice and run-scoring groundout. After hitting the next batter, he retired 10 of the final 11 hitters he faced.
“I was prepared for anything,” Maxwell said. “I thought maybe I was only going to go three, but I felt good and I could have gone more. But they brought in Grby, and everybody is good on this team ... I was just going an inning at a time, and in my head I was just playing it one pitch at a time. I didn’t want to get ahead of myself, I had really good concentration.”
Grbavac and Kunz finished things with a perfect inning apiece, with Kunz earning his second save of the weekend and sixth of the season. The Beavers completed an errorless weekend; they have played errorless defense in half their 36 games this season and have committed one or fewer errors in 27 games.
OSU has held opponents to three or fewer runs in 20 of 36 games this season. The Beavers are 8-2 in games decided by two or fewer runs this spring.
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
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Rich Gorman 2b............. 3 0 0 0 Chris Hopkins cf........... 4 1 0 1
Michael Capbarat cf........ 4 1 1 1 Darwin Barney ss........... 3 0 0 0
Ryan Hanlon lf............ 0 0 0 0 Mitch Canham c............. 3 1 1 0
David Cooper 1b........... 4 1 2 0 Mike Lissman dh............ 3 0 1 1
Jeff Kobernus lf........... 3 0 1 0
Brett Jackson cf.......... 1 0 0 0 Jason Ogata 2b............. 3 0 1 1
Jordan Karnofsky dh........ 4 0 2 1 Joey Wong 2b.............. 1 0 0 0
Michael Brady ss........... 4 0 0 0 Scott Santschi rf.......... 2 1 1 0
Blake Smith rf............. 4 1 2 0 Braden Wells ph/rf........ 2 0 0 0
Stephen Carlson 3b......... 1 0 0 0 Drew George 3b............. 2 1 2 2
Brett Munster ph/3b....... 1 0 0 0 Lonnie Lechelt 3b......... 0 0 0 0
Mike Van Winden ph........ 1 0 0 0 John Wallace lf............ 1 0 0 0
Charlie Cutler c........... 3 0 0 1 Koa Kahalehoe rf.......... 1 0 0 0
Nick Nunez p............... 0 0 0 0 Daniel Turpen p............ 0 0 0 0
Dane
Craig Bennigson p......... 0 0 0 0 Mark Grbavac p............ 0 0 0 0
Matt Gorgen p............. 0 0 0 0 Eddie Kunz p.............. 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 33 3 8 3 Totals..................... 27 5 6 5
Score by Innings R H E
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California.......... 200 100 000 - 3 8 1
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E - Brady. DP -
Santschi. HR - Capbarat; George. HBP - Gorman. SH - Carlson; Barney; Lissman;
Wallace 2.
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Nick Nunez L,2-2.......... 3.0 3 4 3 4 1
Dane
Craig Bennigson ........... 1.0 2 1 1 0 0
Matt Gorgen ............... 3.0 1 0 0 1 4
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Daniel Turpen ............. 3.0 6 2 2 1 0
Anton Maxwell W,3-0....... 4.0 2 1 1 0 3
Mark Grbavac .............. 1.0 0 0 0 0 0
Eddie Kunz S,6............ 1.0 0 0 0 0 0
WP - Maxwell. HBP - by Maxwell (Gorman). PB - Cutler.
Umpires - HP: Kevin Daugherty 1B: Heath Jones 3B: Tim Vessey
Start: 1:02 pm Time: 2:35 Attendance: 1759
Nunez faced 2 batters in the 4th.
