No. 23 OSU Falls To UCLA 5-2 In Series Finale
LOS ANGELES,
The Beavers now await word on whether they will make their third straight postseason appearance. The 64-team field for the NCAA Regionals will be announced Monday at 9:30 a.m. on ESPN. The 16 four-team, double-elimination tournaments will be played Friday through Monday.
“I don’t have any information,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said of the Beavers’ chances of being selected for the postseason field. “I just know we came down here and won the series, and we felt that with where we are RPI-wise and what our record is, that we needed to win this series in order to have a shot. We’ll wait and find out what we’ve got.
“There’s no question this is a good enough team to be in the tournament. We’re a top-20 team, there’s no doubt about it; that doesn’t always get you in the tournament.”
On Sunday, Bruin lefthander Gavin Brooks tossed a three-hitter at the Beavers, who had amassed 25 hits in the first two games of the series. Brooks improved his record to 5-6 this season as he walked one and struck out seven.
“We played well the first two days, we swung the bats well,” Casey said. “Today, their guy had a heck of an outing and we just couldn’t put any pressure on him. Jorge (Reyes, OSU’s starter) pitched great, but we just couldn’t get anything to fall. We hit some balls hard but couldn’t get anything to drop for us, and when you don’t have baserunners it makes it difficult.”
UCLA all but put the game away with a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. OSU closer Eddie Kunz walked Will Penniall with one out, then Justin Uribe dropped a triple just inside the rightfield line to score him. Uribe scored on Ryan Babineau’s sacrifice fly to center to make it 5-2.
Reyes took the loss to drop to 4-3 this season, pitching 4 1/3 innings and allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits and no walks while striking out one.
OSU got on the board when Lissman homered to leftfield in the top of the fifth inning to pull within 2-1. Lissman’s homer – his eight of the season – was the Beavers’ first hit of the game and ended a string of 13 straight hitters retired by Brooks. Brooks then retired the next eight Beavers.
The Bruins pushed the lead back to 3-1 with a run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Penniall opened the inning with a double to right-centerfield and advanced on a flyout to center. OSU then replaced Reyes with Daniel Turpen, and Tim Stewart blooped a single over a drawn-in infield to plate Penniall.
UCLA took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning. Reyes hit Gabe Cohen with a pitch to start the inning, then Cohen was sacrificed to second and balked to third with one out. Reyes got Justin Uribe to pop up for the second out, but Stewart followed with a single through the left side to drive in Cohen.
The Bruins made it 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Cohen led off with a bunt single and advanced to second on a throwing error on the play by Beaver third baseman Lonnie Lechelt. After Penniall flied out, Cohen advanced to third on a groundout. Stewart then grouned to Lechelt, but his throw pulled OSU first baseman Jordan Lennerton off the bag and Cohen scored.
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Joey Wong 2b............... 4 0 1 1 Jermaine Curtis 3b......... 5 0 2 0
Chris Hopkins cf........... 3 0 0 0 Alden Carrithers 2b........ 3 0 1 0
Darwin Barney ss........... 4 0 0 0 Brandon Crawford ss........ 4 0 1 0
Jason Ogata dh............. 4 0 0 0 Cody Decker dh............. 4 0 1 0
Mitch Canham c............. 3 0 0 0 Gabe Cohen rf.............. 3 2 1 0
Braden Wells rf............ 3 0 0 0 Will Penniall lf........... 2 2 1 0
Mike Lissman lf............ 3 2 1 1 Justin Uribe cf............ 4 1 1 1
Jordan Lennerton 1b........ 3 0 1 0 Tim Murphy cf............. 0 0 0 0
Koa Kahalehoe pr.......... 0 0 0 0 Tim Stewart 1b............. 3 0 2 2
Alex Sogard 1b............ 0 0 0 0 Ryan Babineau c............ 3 0 0 1
Lonnie Lechelt 3b.......... 2 0 0 0 Gavin Brooks p............. 0 0 0 0
Erik Ammon ph............. 1 0 0 0
Drew George 3b............ 0 0 0 0
Jorge Reyes p.............. 0 0 0 0
Daniel Turpen p........... 0 0 0 0
Blake Keitzman p.......... 0 0 0 0
Eddie Kunz p.............. 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 30 2 3 2 Totals..................... 31 5 10 4
Score by Innings R H E
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UCLA................ 010 101 02X - 5 10 1
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E - Lechelt 2; Carrithers. DP -
Curtis; Penniall. 3B - Uribe. HR - Lissman. HBP - Cohen; Stewart. SH - Carrithers;
Penniall. SF - Babineau. SB - Stewart.
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Jorge Reyes L,4-3......... 5.1 7 3 2 0 1
Daniel Turpen ............. 0.2 2 0 0 0 0
Blake Keitzman ............ 0.2 0 0 0 0 0
Eddie Kunz ................ 1.1 1 2 2 1 1
UCLA IP H R ER BB SO
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HBP - by Reyes (Cohen); by Kunz (Stewart). BK - Reyes.
Umpires - HP: Kendall Snyder 1B: Jim Garman 3B: Mark Beller
Start: 12:03 pm Time: 2:40 Attendance: 942
