No. 8 OSU Opens Baseball Series With Win
The Beavers and Trojans (18-13, 1-3) continue their series Friday at 5 p.m. and Saturday at 12 noon. Both games can be heard live 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; Spanish language broadcasts are available Friday on KXQR-AM (660) in the Eugene area and Saturday on KXQR, KXPD-AM (1040) in the Portland area and KLES-FM (101.7) in the Yakima, Wash., area.
On Thursday, Hopkins’ two-out single in the bottom of the third inning drove drove in the first run of the game; OSU eventually added two more runs in the frame to go up 3-0. In the bottom of the fourth,
“I’m comfortable doing that – very, very comfortable, actually,”
The win ended a three-game losing streak for OSU and gave the Beavers their first conference victory of the season.
“It just felt good to get a win,”
OSU extended its home winning streak to 12 games over the past two seasons, and the Beavers are 60-9 at home since the start of the 2005 season.
“We played a little tight, even tonight, because we playead so poorly at
Stutes improved his record to 7-1 this season; in his 6 2/3 innings, he allowed two runs on five hits and one walk while striking out six. USC didn’t manage a run off Stutes until the sixth inning, and the junior righthander allowed just one hit and one walk in his first five innings of work.
OSU’s Darwin Barney also extended his hitting streak to seven games, going 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs, and John Wallace was 2-for-4 with a double and two RBIs for the Beavers.
USC righthander Ryan Cook retired the first seven hitters he faced, then hit Koa Kahalehoe with a pitch and Kahalehoe stole second. With two out, Hopkins shot a grounder just wide of third baseman Hector Estrella to drive in Kahalahoe; Hopkins then stole second and scored on Wallace’s looping single down the leftfield line.
That brought Barney to the plate, and Cook balked Wallace to second. Barney grounded a ball to the right side that was stopped by diving second baseman Matt Cusick, but Barney beat the throw to first base for an infield single; Wallace never slowed rounding third and scored on the play to make it 3-0.
In the bottom of the fourth, OSU’s Jordan Lennerton walked to start the inning and Kahalehoe bounced an infield single up the middle with one out. With two down,
USC picked up a run in the top of the sixth on Nick Buss’ leadoff double and Cusick’s single through the right side, and then in the seventh J.J. Owen’s solo homer off Blake Keitzman made it 5-2. Later in the seventh, the Trojans then got a single by Michael Torres and a double by Buss to bring the tying run to the plate with two out; Grant Green grounded a ball into the hole on the left side but Barney made a backhand stop and strong throw to just get Green at first base and end the inning.
OSU pushed its lead to 9-2 in the bottom of the seventh with four runs – two of them unearned – as the Beavers got back-to-back run-scoring doubles from Wallace and Barney and a run-scoring single from Lennerton.
Owen’s second homer of the game – a two-run drive in the eighth – made it 9-4, and USC got a run-scoring single from Green in the ninth to finish the scoring.
Southern California 5 (18-13,1-3 PAC-10)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Nick Buss rf............... 4 1 2 0 Chris Hopkins cf........... 4 1 2 3
Grant Green ss............. 5 0 1 1 John Wallace lf............ 4 2 2 2
Matt Cusick 2b............. 4 0 1 1 Braden Wells lf........... 0 0 0 0
Robert Stock c............. 4 0 0 0
Lucas Duda lf.............. 4 1 2 0 Mitch Canham c............. 3 0 0 0
J.J. Owen 1b............... 4 2 2 3 Mike Lissman dh............ 4 1 0 0
Michael Torres dh.......... 3 0 1 0
Roberto Lopez ph.......... 1 0 0 0 Drew George 3b............. 4 0 0 0
Hector Estrella 3b......... 4 1 1 0 Lonnie Lechelt 3b......... 0 0 0 0
Spencer Pabst cf........... 3 0 0 0 Koa Kahalehoe rf........... 3 2 1 0
Hector Rabago ph.......... 1 0 0 0 Joey Wong 2b............... 3 1 0 0
Ryan Cook p................ 0 0 0 0 Mike Stutes p.............. 0 0 0 0
Anthony Encinas p......... 0 0 0 0 Blake Keitzman p.......... 0 0 0 0
Kevin Zelenay p........... 0 0 0 0 Mark Grbavac p............ 0 0 0 0
Shawn Olsen p............. 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 37 5 10 5 Totals..................... 32 9 8 8
Score by Innings R H E
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E - Owen; Estrella; Barney. DP -
- Buss 2; Hopkins; Wallace; Barney. HR - Owen 2. HBP - Kahalehoe. SH -
Hopkins; Kahalehoe.
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Ryan Cook L,4-2........... 6.0 5 5 5 2 4
Anthony Encinas ........... 0.1 2 3 2 1 0
Kevin Zelenay ............. 0.1 0 0 0 0 1
Shawn Olsen ............... 1.1 1 1 0 0 0
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Mike Stutes W,7-1......... 6.2 5 2 2 1 6
Blake Keitzman ............ 1.0 3 2 2 1 0
Mark Grbavac .............. 1.1 2 1 1 0 1
WP - Cook. HBP - by Cook (Kahalehoe). BK - Cook. PB - Stock.
Umpires - HP: Kelly Gonzales 1B: Steve Mattingly 3B: Patrick Riley
Start: 5:02 PM Time: 2:57 Attendance: 2274
