No. 9 OSU Beats UNLV 3-1
The Beavers and Rebels (14-27, 3-9 Mountain West) continue their series Saturday at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the
Prior to Friday’s game, there was a moment of silence honoring the victims of the tragedy at Virginia Tech earlier in the week. The Beavers wore also wore the Hokies’ “VT” insignia on their uniforms.
Canham hit his sixth homer of the year, a two-run drive to right-centerfield in the first inning, and added a run-scoring single through the left side in the fifth. Stutes and Kunz made that stand up, as OSU limited an opponent to three or fewer runs for the 21st time in 37 games this season.
“I was really impressed with Mike’s outing, and with Eddie coming in and closing it,”
Stutes pitched eight innings and allowed the one run on two hits and three walks as he improved his record to 9-1 this season. The 12 strikeouts bettered his previous career best of 11, which Stutes had managed twice previously at OSU and once during his freshman season at
In his last three starts, Stutes has averaged 7.1 innings, one run, 3.3 hits, 2.7 walks and eight strikeouts.
“It feels nice to just come out and establish the fastball on both sides of the plate,” Stutes said. “That’s what Coach Spence (OSU pitching coach Dan Spencer) has been talking to me about ever since I got here last year, to establish that and then you can work off that. It’s starting to come together for me ... I just tried to come out and put together a good start, and it worked out – and the guys played great defense behind me.”
Stutes faced the minimum number of hitters through four innings, allowing just a single to right by Michael Brenly with one out in the third but Canham caught him stealing. UNLV got its run in the top of the fifth when Stutes walked Efren Navarro Jr. to lead off the inning, then Chad Miller tripled to right to score him and draw the Rebels within 2-1. Stutes stranded the tying run at third, though, as Ryan Kowalski lined out to shortstop Darwin Barney, then Stutes struck out Brenly and Braden Walker to end the inning.
OSU had taken the lead in the bottom of the first when Chris Hopkins drew a leadoff walk, was sacrificed to second, and then scored on Canham’s homer. After UNLV got its run in the top of the fifth, the Beavers answered in the bottom of the inning as
“This whole week, we’ve been taking tons of hacks,” Canham said. “Instead of just going and taking swings, I’ve been focusing on working on things, staying off the bad pitch ... there were moments tonight where we were ripping the ball but they made some great plays; they’ve got phenomenal speed, all their outfielders have like 15 stolen bases each (Kowalski 14, Calvin Beamon 14, Blake Gailen 13).”
Kunz pitched the ninth to earn his seventh save of the season and his third in OSU’s last four games, allowing one hit and striking out two.
Miller was 2-for-4 with a double and a triple for UNLV. Rebel starter Craig Heyer fell to 4-6 on the season, pitching six innings and allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits and four walks while striking out three.
Nevada-Las Vegas 1 (14-27)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Calvin Beamon rf........... 4 0 0 0 Chris Hopkins cf........... 3 2 0 0
Blake Gailen lf............ 4 0 0 0
Keith Smith 2b............. 3 0 0 0 Mitch Canham c............. 3 1 2 3
Efren Navarro Jr. 1b....... 3 1 0 0 Mike Lissman dh............ 4 0 0 0
Blake Amador pr........... 0 0 0 0 Jason Ogata 2b............. 3 0 0 0
Ryan Kowalksi cf........... 4 0 0 0 Joey Wong 2b.............. 1 0 0 0
Xavier Scruggs 3b.......... 2 0 0 0 Scott Santschi rf.......... 2 0 1 0
Michael Brenly c........... 3 0 1 0 Dale Solomon ph........... 1 0 0 0
Braden Walker ss........... 2 0 0 0 Braden Wells lf........... 0 0 0 0
Kyle Kretchmer ph......... 1 0 0 0 Drew George 3b............. 2 0 0 0
Jarred Frierson ss........ 0 0 0 0 Lonnie Lechelt 3b......... 0 0 0 0
Craig Heyer p.............. 0 0 0 0 Koa Kahalehoe lf/rf........ 3 0 1 0
Michael Goodman p......... 0 0 0 0 Mike Stutes p.............. 0 0 0 0
Marc Baca p/dh............ 0 0 0 0 Eddie Kunz p.............. 0 0 0 0
Koji Pupo p............... 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 30 1 3 1 Totals..................... 27 3 5 3
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Nevada-Las Vegas.... 000 010 000 - 1 3 1
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E -
Barney. 3B - Miller. HR - Canham. SH - Barney; George. SB - Hopkins. CS - Brenly.
Nevada-Las Vegas IP H R ER BB SO
------------------------------------------------
Craig Heyer L,4-6......... 6.0 4 3 2 4 3
Michael Goodman ........... 0.2 1 0 0 1 0
Marc Baca ................. 0.1 0 0 0 0 0
Koji Pupo ................. 1.0 0 0 0 0 2
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Mike Stutes W,9-1......... 8.0 2 1 1 3 12
Eddie Kunz S,7............ 1.0 1 0 0 0 2
WP - Stutes.
Umpires - HP: Mik Hendrickson 1B: Terry Fischer 3B: Todd Ellis
Start: 5:03 pm Time: 2:34 Attendance: 1846
