No. 8 OSU Suffers First Home Loss Of Season
The Beavers and Trojans (19-13, 2-3) finish their series Saturday at 12 noon. The game can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the
On Friday, USC scored three runs in the top of the eighth inning to break a 1-1 tie and even the series at one game each; OSU had taken a 9-5 win on Thursday evening. The Beavers are 60-10 at home since the start of the 2005 season.
The Trojans’ Lucas Duda tripled home two runs with a sharp groundball hit just inside first base off
“We didn’t put much up offensively,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “We’re going to have to be more competitive offensively if we’re going to accomplish the things we want to accomplish. Joe pitched a heck of a ballgame, but we need to get on the board for him and take some pressure off him.”
Paterson pitched a career-high 7 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out four as his record fell to 5-3 this season.
“My job is to win the game, so if we get one run, I need to hold them to zero,”
With one out in the eighth, Grant Green singled to right and J.J. Owen delivered a hit-and-run single to right that sent Green to third. Duda then grounded down the line just out of the reach of OSU first baseman Jordan Lennerton to triple home both runners.
“Joe Paterson threw his tail off tonight,” OSU shortstop Darwin Barney said. “It’s unbelievable that a guy can throw that well and it’s unfortunate that his teammates can’t pick him up.”
USC righthander Brad Boxberger, who had a 2.27 earned run average entering the game, improved to 2-2 as he pitched seven innings and allowed one run on three hits and one walk while striking out five.
“He had good command,” Barney said of Boxberger. “He was locating his fastball pretty well and he got us off-balance a little bit. We had opportunities, we had people on base here and there, but with five hits you’re not going to get much, but when you have those opportunities you have to take advantage of them and unfortunately we didn’t tonight.
“We’ve just got to come out Saturday and win a series – that’s all we’re thinking about.”
The Beavers left the bases loaded in the first inning. In the bottom of the eighth against USC reliever Robert Stock, Barney led off with a single and Canham singled him to third to bring the tying run to the plate, but Mike Lissman struck out and Lennerton grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Barney was 2-for-4 with a pair of stolen bases, extending his hitting streak to eight games while the Beavers’ Chris Hopkins had his streak end at seven games. Mitch Canham was also 2-for-4 for OSU and drove in the Beavers’ only run.
USC tied the game 1-1 in the top of the sixth when Hector Rabago led off with a solo homer to leftfield.
Southern California 4 (19-13,2-3 PAC-10)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
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Cusick dh.................. 5 0 1 0 Chris Hopkins cf........... 4 0 0 0
Grant Green ss............. 4 1 2 0 John Wallace lf............ 4 0 0 0
J.J. Owen 1b............... 4 0 1 0
Mike O'Neill pr........... 0 1 0 0 Mitch Canham c............. 4 0 2 1
Derek Perren 1b........... 0 0 0 0 Mike Lissman dh............ 3 0 0 0
Lucas Duda lf.............. 4 1 2 2
Johnny Bowden c............ 3 0 0 0 Drew George 3b............. 4 0 0 0
Nick Buss cf............... 4 0 1 1 Koa Kahalehoe rf........... 4 0 0 0
Roberto Lopez rf........... 3 0 0 0 Joey Wong 2b............... 2 0 1 0
Anthony Vasquez ph/rf..... 1 0 0 0 Scott Santschi ph......... 1 0 0 0
Hector Estrella 2b......... 4 0 1 0 Joe Paterson p............. 0 0 0 0
Hector Rabago 3b........... 4 1 1 1 Anton Maxwell p........... 0 0 0 0
Brad Boxberger p........... 0 0 0 0 Jorge Reyes p............. 0 0 0 0
Robert Stock p............ 0 0 0 0
Paul Koss p............... 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 36 4 9 4 Totals..................... 34 1 5 1
Score by Innings R H E
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E - Green 2; Paterson. DP - So.
Green; Estrella. 3B - Duda 2. HR - Rabago. HBP - Lissman. SB - Barney 2. CS - Buss.
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Brad Boxberger W,2-2...... 7.0 3 1 1 1 5
Robert Stock .............. 1.0 2 0 0 0 1
Paul Koss S,12............ 1.0 0 0 0 0 3
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Joe Paterson L,5-3........ 7.1 7 4 4 1 4
Anton Maxwell ............. 0.2 1 0 0 0 0
Jorge Reyes ............... 1.0 1 0 0 0 2
WP - Boxberger. HBP - by Boxberger (Lissman).
Umpires - HP: Steve Mattingly 1B: Patrick Riley 3B: Kelly Gonzales
Start: 5:01 pm Time: 2:28 Attendance: 2184
