No. 9 OSU Takes Series By Beating Stanford, 8-6 - Oregon State University Athletics

STANFORD, Calif. - Oregon State’s Jorge Reyes pitched six innings in his first conference start as the ninth-ranked Beavers beat Stanford 8-6 in Pacific-10 baseball Sunday afternoon at Sunken Diamond. Jason Ogata, Darwin Barney and Mike Lissman all homered for OSU (34-9 overall, 6-6 Pac-10).

Oregon State now goes to Washington for a Pacific-10 series with games Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Safeco Field, Saturday at 2 p.m. at Husky Ballpark and Sunday at 1 p.m. at Husky Ballpark. All three games can be heard on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area, KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area, KKNX-AM (840) in the Eugene area and KICE-AM (940) in the Bend area. Friday’s game will be televised live by FSN. Internet audio of all three games is available via subscription on the internet through Beaver Nation Online at .

Sunday’s game featured a pair of pitchers making their first Pac-10 starts – OSU righthander Jorge Reyes and Stanford righthander Erik Davis. Reyes gave up three runs in a 37-pitch first inning, then settled down to pitch five scoreless innings and give the Beavers a chance to build an 8-3 lead off Davis and a string of relievers. Reyes wound up pitching six innings and allowing the three runs on eight hits and one walk, striking out four.

“Jorge was very good,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “He jammed one guy in the first inning and he gets a hit out of it, and another guy squirts one off the end of the bat and he got a little tight, but he came back and got out of the inning ... it was a pretty good team effort.”

The Beavers – who had lost a two-run lead in the ninth inning and a one-run lead in the 11th inning of Saturday’s 9-7 loss – saw Stanford bring the potential winning run to the plate in the ninth inning. But Eddie Kunz induced Randy Molina to ground out to end the game, giving Kunz his ninth save of the season.

“It reminds me a lot of last year when we were at Arizona State and had our backs to the wall,” Casey said, referring to a must-win game the Beavers played after losing two straight games in the late innings. “We weren’t playing well and we had to find a way to come out and play well. When you don’t get it done in the last inning the day before, and things are happening in the ninth here, guys start thinking about it, and they can’t be thinking about it. That ought to get them through it, hopefully, and get us going because that’s a pretty good club.”

For the Beavers at the plate, Ogata was 3-for-4 with a homer, a double and two runs batted in; Lissman was 3-for-4 with a homer and Barney was 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs. It was the third straight season that OSU has taken its series with the Cardinal, and the Beavers also beat Stanford in a 2006 NCAA Super Regional.

OSU took the lead for good at 4-3 with a pair of runs in the top of the second inning. Jordan Lennerton walked and Lissman singled to start the inning and moved to second and third on Koa Kahalehoe’s groundout. Drew George singled to right to score Lennerton and advance Lissman to third, and Chris Hopkins added a sacrifice fly to plate Lissman.

The Beavers made it 5-3 with a run in the top of the third. Ogata yanked a double down the leftfield line to start the inning, moved up to third on Mitch Canham’s flyout to centerfield, and scored on Barney’s sacrifice fly to right, just evading the tag of Stanford catcher Jason Castro after Michael Taylor’s strong throw.

Oregon State tacked on another run in the top of the fifth. Hopkins led off with a walk, was sacrificed to second by Wong, went to third on Canham’s groundout and scored on Darwin Barney’s two-out single through the right side off Cardinal reliever Cory Bannister. OSU boosted its lead to 7-3 when Lissman led off the top of the sixth inning with his fifth homer of the year, a towering fly to left.

The Beavers’ lead expanded to 8-3 in the top of the seventh inning when Barney homered to left with two out off David Stringer. It was Barney’s second homer of the season, and it made it the first time this season that Oregon State had homered three times in a game.

Stanford got a run back in the bottom of the seventh when Toby Gerhart and Michael Taylor hit back-to-back two-out doubles off OSU reliever Daniel Turpen. Blake Keitzman then came in and got Joey August to ground out to end the inning with Oregon State’s lead at 8-4.

The Cardinal crept within 8-5 in the bottom of the eighth inning. Keitzman walked Adam Sorgi and then Mark Grbavac walked pinch hitter Brian Juhl to start the inning;. After Cord Phelps grounded a two-out single up the middle to score Sorgi, it brought Sean Ratliff – who has a team-high seven home runs for Stanford – to the plate representing the tying run. Grbavac dropped a curveball in for a called third strike to Ratliff and the Beavers had their three-run lead going to the ninth inning.

Oregon State had gone up 2-0 in the top of the first inning. Hopkins drew a leadoff walk and was sacrificed to second by Joey Wong. Ogata worked the count to three balls and one strike, then drilled his second homer of the year over the leftfield fence.

Stanford came right back with three runs in the bottom of the first. Sean Ratliff’s double, Gerhart’s single and a walk to August loaded the bases with one out; Adam Sorgi singled down the rightfield line to drive in a pair of runs and tie the game at 2-2. With two out, Randy Molina singled up the middle to drive in August from second and put Stanford up 3-2.

Wong saw his errorless streak end at 154 straight chances in the bottom of the fourth inning, making a wild throw attempting to complete a double play. The freshman second baseman had been errorless in the field in his first 42 games at OSU.

Oregon State 8 (34-9,6-6 Pac-10) Stanford 6 (18-23,3-12 Pac-10)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------

Chris Hopkins cf........... 2 2 0 1 Sean Ratliff cf............ 5 1 1 0

Joey Wong 2b............... 3 0 0 0 Toby Gerhart lf............ 5 2 2 0

Jason Ogata dh............. 4 2 3 2 Michael Taylor rf.......... 5 1 2 1

Mitch Canham c............. 5 0 1 0 Jeffrey Inman dh........... 0 0 0 0

Darwin Barney ss........... 4 1 2 3 Joey August ph............ 4 1 2 0

Jordan Lennerton 1b........ 3 1 0 0 Adam Sorgi 2b.............. 4 1 3 2

Mike Lissman lf............ 4 2 3 1 Jeff Whitlow pr........... 0 0 0 0

Braden Wells lf........... 0 0 0 0 Jason Castro c............. 3 0 0 0

Koa Kahalehoe rf........... 4 0 1 0 Brian Juhl ph............. 0 0 0 1

Drew George 3b............. 2 0 1 1 Randy Molina 1b............ 5 0 3 1

Lonnie Lechelt 3b......... 1 0 0 0 Ryan Seawell 3b............ 3 0 0 0

Jorge Reyes p.............. 0 0 0 0 Brendan Domaracki ph...... 1 0 0 0

Daniel Turpen p........... 0 0 0 0 Brian Moon 3b............. 0 0 0 0

Blake Keitzman p.......... 0 0 0 0 Adam Gaylord ss............ 2 0 0 0

Mark Grbavac p............ 0 0 0 0 Cord Phelps ph............ 2 0 1 1

Eddie Kunz p.............. 0 0 0 0 Erik Davis p............... 0 0 0 0

Cory Bannister p.......... 0 0 0 0

David Stringer p.......... 0 0 0 0

Tom Stilson p............. 0 0 0 0

Blake Hancock p........... 0 0 0 0

Totals..................... 32 8 11 8 Totals..................... 39 6 14 6

Score by Innings R H E

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Oregon State........ 221 011 100 - 8 11 1

Stanford............ 300 000 111 - 6 14 0

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E - Wong. DP - Oregon St. 1; Stanford 1. LOB - Oregon St. 6; Stanford 10. 2B -

Ogata; Ratliff; Gerhart; Taylor. HR - Ogata; Barney; Lissman. SH - Wong 2; George.

SF - Hopkins; Barney; Juhl. SB - Kahalehoe.

Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO

------------------------------------------------

Jorge Reyes W,3-0......... 6.0 8 3 3 1 4

Daniel Turpen ............. 0.2 2 1 1 0 1

Blake Keitzman ............ 0.1 0 1 1 1 0

Mark Grbavac .............. 1.1 2 1 1 1 2

Eddie Kunz S,9............ 0.2 2 0 0 0 0

Stanford IP H R ER BB SO

------------------------------------------------

Erik Davis L,2-1.......... 4.1 5 6 6 4 3

Cory Bannister ............ 1.2 3 1 1 0 1

David Stringer ............ 1.0 1 1 1 0 2

Tom Stilson ............... 1.0 1 0 0 0 0

Blake Hancock ............. 1.0 1 0 0 0 1

Umpires - HP: Travis Katzenmeier 1B: Dan Mascarro 3B: David Rogers

Start: 12:30 pm Time: 3:36 Attendance: 1931