Canham's Slams Pace No. 9 OSU To Sweep
The Beavers visit
On Sunday, the Beavers won for the eighth time in their last 10 games. It was the sixth time this season they have swept a weekend series.
“We did a good job,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “Any time you win three games, you feel pretty good about it. We do feel there are some areas we want to improve on. It was good to get a three-game sweep, and they’ve beaten some good people. We understand what we have to do down the stretch; there’s not a lot of games left, so we have to get a little more efficient on the offensive part of the game.”
Canham’s grand slam in the first game came as part of the Beavers’ seven-run fourth inning. In the second game, his slam came when he pinch-hit in the fifth inning, giving OSU a 6-0 lead in what had been a close game to that point.
“The guys got on and gave me a lot of opportunities,” said Canham, who has three grand slams among his eight homers this season. “I got a couple good pitches to drive and got on them.”
Canham wasn’t in OSU’s lineup to start the second game, was called on to pinch hit for Dale Solomon when the Rebels brought righthander Marc Baca into the game. He drove a one-ball, one-strike pitch high over the rightfield fence.
“We figured that if they flipped that there and went with a righthander, we’d go with Mitch,” Casey said. “It was a good opportunity for us to get his bat in the lineup. We didn’t want to double him up today because he’s been catching a lot of innings. It was a good spot for us to get him in there as the designated hitter.”
Canham’s slams gave the Beavers all the runs they needed in both games. In the opener, Joe Paterson and Blake Keitzman combined to pitch a six-hitter; in the second game, Jorge Reyes, Mark Grbavac and Eddie Kunz teamed up to allow just four hits in OSU’s fifth shutout of the season.
“It was a great start out of Joe Pa,” Canham said. “We finally got him some runs. And Jorge did a great job, too; he was going out there with three real good pitches. Both guys did a great job today – it’s really hard to get beat when you’ve got guys like that going out to the mound every day. I’m stoked for all of them.”
In the first game, OSU took a 1-0 lead in the first inning as Mike Lissman’s two-out single through the left side scored Jason Ogata from second. In the fourth inning, Darwin Barney doubled on the first pitch from UNLV starter Matt Hutchison and then Jordan Lennerton homered on the first pitch he saw to make it 3-0. Canham added his grand slam later in the inning to make it 8-0 off reliever Chris Sadorris.
Lennerton added a double and scored in the seventh inning, finishing the game 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and Drew George was also 2-for-4 with a double for the Beavers.
The second game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth, when Barney again led off with a double and scored on Mike Lissman’s single. In the fifth, there were two out when Barney again doubled to drive in a run for a 2-0 lead; two hitters later, Canham’s second slam put OSU in front 6-0.
Reyes, the freshman righthander making his first weekend start, pitched six scoreless innings to improve his record to 2-0 this season; he walked none and struck out four.
Barney and Lissman were both 2-for-3 in the second game for OSU, while Lennerton was 2-for-4.
Canham’s second grand slam was OSU’s first pinch-hit homer since March 28, 2005, when Scott Nelson hit one against Brigham Young; that hit was also a grand slam. After not hitting a grand slam during its 2006 national championship season, the Beavers have hit five grand slams this year, with Barney and Lennerton providing the other two.
Canham’s three homers on the weekend gave him 23 in his career and moved him onto
GAME ONE
Nevada-Las Vegas 2 (14-28)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Ryan Kowalksi cf........... 4 0 0 0 Chris Hopkins cf........... 5 1 0 1
Rance Roundy 2b............ 2 0 0 0 Jason Ogata 2b............. 3 1 1 0
Keith Smith rf............. 4 0 0 0 Lonnie Lechelt 2b......... 1 1 1 0
Chad Miller dh............. 4 0 0 0 Mitch Canham c............. 4 1 1 4
Xavier Scruggs 3b.......... 1 0 0 0 Erik Ammon c.............. 0 0 0 0
Blake Amador lf........... 1 0 0 0 Mike Lissman dh............ 4 0 1 1
Chris Bonnell 1b........... 3 0 1 0 Brett Casey ph............ 1 0 1 0
Willie Bowman lf/3b........ 2 1 1 0
Drew Beuerlein c........... 2 0 1 0 Joey Lakowske ph.......... 1 0 1 0
Michael Brenly ph/c....... 2 1 2 1 Joey Wong ss.............. 0 0 0 0
Jarred Frierson ss......... 4 0 1 1
Matt Hutchison p........... 0 0 0 0 Scott Santschi rf.......... 2 1 1 0
Chris Saddoris p.......... 0 0 0 0 Braden Wells rf........... 1 0 0 0
Stephen Singer p.......... 0 0 0 0 Drew George 3b............. 4 1 2 0
Koa Kahalehoe lf........... 3 1 0 0
Joe Paterson p............. 0 0 0 0
Blake Keitzman p.......... 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 29 2 6 2 Totals..................... 36 10 12 8
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Nevada-Las Vegas.... 000 000 200 - 2 6 1
-------------------------------------------
E - Frierson. DP -
Barney; Lennerton; George. HR - Canham; Lennerton. HBP - Roundy; Amador; Bowman. SH
- Roundy; Bonnell. SB - Ogata; Wells; George. CS - Scruggs.
Nevada-Las Vegas IP H R ER BB SO
------------------------------------------------
Matt Hutchison L,1-7...... 3.1 6 7 7 4 3
Chris Saddoris ............ 2.2 2 1 1 2 0
Stephen Singer ............ 2.0 4 2 1 0 2
------------------------------------------------
Joe Paterson W,6-4........ 6.1 3 2 2 3 5
Blake Keitzman ............ 2.2 3 0 0 0 1
WP - Singer. HBP - by
- Saddoris; Paterson.
Umpires - HP: Terry Fischer 1B: Todd Ellis 3B: Mik Hendrickson
Start: 10:59 am Time: 2:50
GAME TWO
Nevada-Las Vegas 0 (14-29)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Calvin Beamon rf........... 4 0 0 0 Chris Hopkins cf........... 3 0 0 0
Blake Gailen lf............ 4 0 0 0 Jason Ogata 2b............. 3 1 0 0
Keith Smith 2b............. 3 0 2 0 Joey Wong 2b.............. 0 0 0 0
Efren Navarro Jr. 1b....... 2 0 2 0 Ryan Ortiz ph/c........... 1 0 0 0
Chris Bonnell dh........... 3 0 0 0
Ryan Kowalksi cf........... 4 0 0 0 Mike Lissman lf............ 3 1 2 1
Willie Bowman 3b........... 3 0 0 0 Koa Kahalehoe rf.......... 0 0 0 0
Michael Brenly c........... 3 0 0 0 Dale Solomon dh............ 2 0 0 0
Braden Walker ss........... 3 0 0 0 Mitch Canham ph/dh........ 2 1 1 4
Kevin Skogley p............ 0 0 0 0
Marc Baca p............... 0 0 0 0 Lonnie Lechelt 3b/2b....... 4 0 1 0
Adam Moser p.............. 0 0 0 0 Braden Wells rf............ 3 1 1 0
John Wallace ph/lf........ 0 0 0 0
Erik Ammon c............... 1 0 0 0
Scotty Berke ph........... 1 0 0 0
Drew George 3b............ 0 0 0 0
Jorge Reyes p.............. 0 0 0 0
Mark Grbavac p............ 0 0 0 0
Eddie Kunz p.............. 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 29 0 4 0 Totals..................... 30 7 9 6
Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Nevada-Las Vegas.... 000 000 000 - 0 4 2
-------------------------------------------
E - Bowman 2. DP - Nev.-L.Vegas 1;
2B - Smith; Barney 2; Lechelt. HR - Canham. SH - Hopkins; Ammon. SB - Barney. CS -
Nevada-Las Vegas IP H R ER BB SO
------------------------------------------------
Kevin Skogley L,0-4....... 4.2 6 5 5 4 4
Marc Baca ................. 1.1 1 1 1 0 0
Adam Moser ................ 2.0 2 1 0 2 0
------------------------------------------------
Jorge Reyes W,2-0......... 6.0 3 0 0 0 4
Mark Grbavac .............. 2.0 0 0 0 2 1
Eddie Kunz ................ 1.0 1 0 0 2 1
BK - Skogley.
Umpires - HP: Todd Ellis 1B: Mik Hendrickson 3B: Terry Fischer
Start: 2:24 pm Time: 2:36 Attendance: 1216
