No. 23 OSU To Finish Regular Season At UCLA - Oregon State University Athletics

FRIDAY, MAY 25

No. 23 Oregon State at UCLA, 6 p.m.

RADIO: Live on KEJO-AM (1240) in Corvallis area, KUIK-AM (1360) in Portland area, KKNX-AM (840) in Eugene area, KICE-AM (940) in Bend area.

INTERNET AUDIO: Live via subscription through Beaver Nation Online at www.osubeavers.com. INTERNET STATISTICS: Live at www.osubeavers.com.

SATURDAY, MAY 26

No. 23 Oregon State at UCLA, 2 p.m.

RADIO: Live on KEJO-AM (1240) in Corvallis area, KUIK-AM (1360) in Portland area, KKNX-AM (840) in Eugene area, KICE-AM (940) in Bend area.

INTERNET AUDIO: Live via subscription through Beaver Nation Online at www.osubeavers.com. INTERNET STATISTICS: Live at www.osubeavers.com.

SUNDAY, MAY 27

No. 23 Oregon State at UCLA, 12 noon

RADIO: Live on KEJO-AM (1240) in Corvallis area, KUIK-AM (1360) in Portland area, KKNX-AM (840) in Eugene area, KICE-AM (940) in Bend area.

INTERNET AUDIO: Live via subscription through Beaver Nation Online at www.osubeavers.com. INTERNET STATISTICS: Live at www.osubeavers.com.

Oregon State wraps up baseball’s regular season this weekend, and the 23rd-ranked Beavers (36-16, 8-13) would like to wrap up a third straight postseason berth at the same time.

OSU visits UCLA (29-24, 13-8) for games Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 12 noon. The vagaries that can surface in the selection of the 64 teams for the NCAA Regionals are myriad, but it is likely that the Beavers - the defending national champions - need to win at least two games at UCLA to have a chance at being included in the field.

“As far as this weekend goes, the only thing we can afford to have on our minds is what we can control,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “And that’s how we play these three games. We can control our execution, our intensity and our effort, and that has to be our focus. Do that, and we have a chance to come home with some good results from this series; then we have to wait and see what happens.”

Oregon State goes into the weekend tied for seventh place in the Pac-10, but just three games separate fourth through eighth places. Arizona State (17-4) has wrapped up at least a share of the conference title and is followed in the standings by Arizona (14-7), UCLA (13-8), California (11-10), Washington (9-12), Washington State (10-14), OSU (8-13), Southern California (8-13) and Stanford (6-15).

The Pac-10 can make a case for being perhaps the nation’s strongest conference in 2007, as every team in the conference has an overall record of at least .500 with the exception of Stanford.

“Every team in this conference is a quality team,” Casey said. “You get into a lot of conferences and maybe there are one or two teams that are really struggling that season, games that you really figure you can count on winning. But you look around the Pac-10 this year, and there’s nobody that you can count on beating in a series unless you play very, very well. When it comes to consideration for places in the postseason, that ought to weigh heavily in our conference’s favor. Now we have to go down there and play well enough to give ourselves a chance.”

For the Beavers, the offense continues to be led by junior catcher Mitch Canham (.345 batting average, 9 home runs, 52 runs batted in), senior outfielder Mike Lissman (.330, 7, 50), junior first baseman Jordan Lennerton (.327, 6, 42), sophomore infielder Jason Ogata (.301, 3, 32) and junior shortstop Darwin Barney (.292, 2, 41). OSU’s starting rotation has been paced by junior righthander Mike Stutes (9-4 record, 3.64 earned run average), junior lefthander Joe Paterson (6-6, 4.04), junior righthander Daniel Turpen (8-1, 3.87) and freshman righthander Jorge Reyes (4-2, 3.55).

With two wins in the series at UCLA, Casey would earn his 600th career win in 20 seasons at Oregon State and George Fox.

UCLA lost 2 of 3 games at Washington State last weekend, falling 5-1 and 10-5 before winning the finale 7-5. The Bruins’ rotation has been anchored by senior righthander Tyson Brummett (9-5, 3.54), freshman lefthander Gavin Brooks 4-6, 5.53) and sophomore lefthander Tim Murphy (4-3, 5.66). At the plate, UCLA has been led by freshman outfielder Gabe Cohen (.360, 9, 32), junior infielder Alden Carrithers (.350, 2, 30), sophomore infielder Brandon Crawford (.338, 6, 50), sophomore infielder Jermaine Curtis (.331, 3, 30) and sophomore catcher Cody Decker (.323, 13, 52).

For the complete OSU baseball weekly release, view the PDF file accompanying this page.