Beavers Take CWS Championship Series Lead - Oregon State University Athletics

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Freshman Jorge Reyes led Oregon State to within one win of its second straight College World Series title with another strong pitching performance and the Beavers beat North Carolina 11-4 in Game 1 on Saturday night.

North Carolina, which won three straight elimination games to set up a rematch of last year's championship series, needs to win twice more to keep Oregon State from becoming the first back-to-back national champion since LSU in 1996-97. OSU and North Carolina meet in Game 2 Sunday at 4 p.m. PDT.

Sunday's game will be televised on ESPN2, and all of the Beavers’ CWS 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, KBZY-AM (1490) in the Salem area, KICE-AM (940) in the Bend area, KMED-AM (1440) in the Medford area, KRNR-AM (1490) in the Roseburg area, KNPT-AM (1310) in the Newport area, KAGO-AM (1150) in the Klamath Falls area, KODL-AM (1440) in The Dalles area, and KTIX-AM (1240) in the Pendleton area. LaX Sports is carrying the championship finals with a Spanish language broadcast.

On Saturday, Reyes (7-3), allowed eight hits and three runs in 6 1/3 innings to win for the second time in the CWS and third time in the NCAA tournament.

The Tar Heels (57-15), who have come from behind to win five games in the NCAA tournament, couldn't rally against Oregon State (48-18), which is 41-0 when leading after seven innings. And the pitching problems that plagued North Carolina early in the tournament appeared to return.

North Carolina freshman Alex White (6-7) gave up eight hits and five runs in 5 1/3 innings and lost for the second time in the CWS. He was rocked by Rice last Sunday.

Oregon State and North Carolina are playing the first title-series rematch since Arizona State and Southern California met in 1973. A year ago, the Tar Heels won Game 1, then the Beavers won two straight for their first national championship.

The Beavers have won all four of their CWS games and 10 of their last 11 overall.

Reyes gave up a double to Reid Fronk on the first pitch of the game, but held the Tar Heels scoreless until the fifth.

By then the Beavers were up 3-0. After Fronk's second double of the game cut it to 3-2, Oregon State scored once in the fifth, twice in the sixth and four times in the seventh to break open the game.

Reyes held North Carolina scoreless on three hits through four innings. Seth Williams and Garrett Gore had back-to-back two-out singles in the fifth before Fronk drove them in.

After Reyes walked Gore with one out in the seventh, Joe Paterson came on and went the rest of the way to earn his second save.

The Tar Heels' pitching staff came into the finals having allowed just six runs and 16 hits the previous three games after allowing 19 in the first two in Omaha.

On Saturday, six pitchers combined to allow 12 hits and six walks and hit two batters. The Tar Heels' pitching really unraveled in the Beavers' four-run seventh.

Tyler Trice, the fourth of seven North Carolina pitchers, misplayed two bunts. He threw in the dirt after picking up Chris Hopkins' and threw over first baseman Dustin Ackley on Joey Wong's bunt, allowing two runs to score.

Matt Cox came on and walked two in a row to force in another run.

The Beavers got to White in the second with two outs. He walked Scott Santschi before Jordan Lennerton hit his second homer of the CWS.

The Beavers made it 3-0 in the third, and they might have scored more if Mike Lissman's base-running error hadn't produced an easy double play. Wong scored from third on Mitch Canham's sacrifice fly. But Lissman, on first, apparently didn't realize there was only out, and he ran on contact. He already was around third when Josh Horton threw to first to double him off.

North Carolina 4 (57-15) Oregon State 11 (48-18)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

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

Reid Fronk lf.............. 4 0 2 2 Chris Hopkins cf........... 5 1 2 1

Tim Fedroff rf............. 3 0 1 1 Joey Wong 2b............... 3 2 2 0

Bryan Steed ph............ 1 0 1 0 Mike Lissman dh............ 4 1 1 0

Josh Horton ss............. 5 0 1 0 Mitch Canham c............. 2 1 1 2

Tim Federowicz c........... 3 0 0 0 Darwin Barney ss........... 4 1 1 1

Benji Johnson ph/c........ 1 1 1 1 John Wallace lf............ 1 0 0 1

Dustin Ackley 1b........... 4 0 1 0 Jason Ogata ph............ 0 0 0 1

Chad Flack 3b.............. 4 0 1 0 Braden Wells lf........... 0 0 0 0

Kyle Seager dh............. 3 0 0 0 Scott Santschi rf.......... 3 1 1 1

Kyle Shelton ph........... 1 0 1 0 Jordan Lennerton 1b........ 4 2 2 2

Seth Williams cf........... 4 2 2 0 Lonnie Lechelt 3b.......... 3 2 2 0

Mike Cavasinni cf......... 0 0 0 0 Jorge Reyes p.............. 0 0 0 0

Garrett Gore 2b............ 3 1 1 0 Joe Paterson p............ 0 0 0 0

Alex White p............... 0 0 0 0

Matt Danford p............ 0 0 0 0

Rob Catapano p............ 0 0 0 0

Tyler Trice p............. 0 0 0 0

Matt Cox p................ 0 0 0 0

Matt Facchinei p.......... 0 0 0 0

Totals..................... 36 4 12 4 Totals..................... 29 11 12 9

Score by Innings R H E

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

North Carolina...... 000 020 110 - 4 12 2

Oregon State........ 021 012 41X - 11 12 2

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E - Trice 2; Wallace; Santschi. DP - N. Carolina 5; Oregon St. 1. LOB - N. Carolina

8; Oregon St. 6. 2B - Fronk 2; Lechelt 2. HR - Johnson; Lennerton. HBP - Wong;

Canham. SH - Wong. SF - Fedroff; Canham; Wallace; Ogata. SB - Lechelt.

North Carolina IP H R ER BB SO

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

Alex White L,6-7.......... 5.1 8 5 5 2 2

Matt Danford .............. 0.1 2 1 1 0 0

Rob Catapano .............. 0.1 0 1 1 1 0

Tyler Trice ............... 0.0 0 3 0 1 0

Matt Cox .................. 0.0 0 0 0 2 0

Matt Facchinei ............ 2.0 2 1 1 0 2

Oregon State IP H R ER BB SO

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

Jorge Reyes W,7-3......... 6.1 8 3 3 1 3

Joe Paterson S,2.......... 2.2 4 1 1 1 2

HBP - by Facchinei (Wong); by Facchinei (Canham). PB - Federowicz.

Umpires - HP: Ken Eldridge 1B: David Rogers 2B: Scott Graham 3B: Jeff Henrichs

Start: 6:15 pm Time: 3:17 Attendance: 26887

Game notes:

Additional umpires - LF: Scott Erby RF: Mark Ditsworth

Catapano faced 1 batter in the 7th.

Trice faced 3 batters in the 7th.

Cox faced 2 batters in the 7th.

OREGON STATE GAME NOTES

On Saturday night, Oregon State shortstop Darwin Barney tied OSU’s record for career hits with his single in the bottom of the sixth inning. The record is held by Jacoby Ellsbury, with 236 hits from 2003-05.

Oregon State undergraduate assistant coach Kurt Steele will be back in Omaha for Sunday’s game. Steele returned to Corvallis on Thursday morning and was married on Saturday; he and his wife, the former Kathy Gellatly, are scheduled to return to Omaha on Sunday morning.

Oregon State pitcher Joe Paterson has recorded 3 wins and 2 saves in the postseason.

Since the start of OSU’s final series of the regular season, May 25-27 at UCLA, Beaver second baseman Joey Wong is batting .393 (22-for-56) with 9 RBIs and 7 multi-hit games.

Jordan Lennerton’s home run was his second of the College World Series and his third of the postseason. Lennerton homered against Arizona State in the CWS on June 18 and against Virginia in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional on June 4.

Of Oregon State’s 44 home runs this season, 11 have come in the postseason.

Oregon State has a streak of 50 innings at the College World Series without having trailed, dating back to the middle of the fourth inning of the second game of the 2006 championship finals against North Carolina on June 25. That ties for the second-longest streak in CWS history, set by Texas in 1950 and 1952. The longest such streak is Missouri’s 71 innings in 1954 and 1958.

Oregon State entered the game with a streak of 61 innings this season without trailing, dating back to the middle of the second inning at Virginia on June 5 in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional.

Jorge Reyes’ 6.1 innings was his third-longest appearance of the year. Reyes had pitched 7.0 innings in wins over Washington on May 6 and Michigan on June 10.

For the College World Series championship finals, OSU is having its games broadcast in Spanish over four stations on the LaX network in the Pacific Northwest. Juan Dios Andrade arrived in Omaha on Friday and is calling the play-by-play. Andrade and broadcast partner Eligio Montes broadcast every OSU home game this season; the Beavers’ football games have been broadcast in Spanish since 2003.

for photos from Saturday's event.