Non-Conference Baseball: No. 9 OSU Scores Late to Beat Portland

Jorge Reyes and four relievers combined to pitch a four-hitter for Oregon State.

Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - Oregon State scored nine runs over the seventh and eighth innings as the ninth-ranked Beavers beat Portland 12-4 in non-conference baseball Tuesday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

Jordan Lennerton was 3-for-4 with a grand slam and Mitch Canham had a pair of doubles and drove in three runs for OSU (26-7 overall).

On Tuesday, the Beavers found themselves trailing Portland (14-17) by a 4-3 score going into the bottom of the seventh inning, but plated four runs in the seventh and five more in the eighth to secure the win.

Jorge Reyes and four relievers combined to pitch a four-hitter for Oregon State.

“These Tuesday games are tough,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “Everybody is trying to figure out who they’re going to throw and who they’re going to save for the weekend. We got into a situation last year (against Portland) where we had a one-run lead in the ninth and we left (2006 closer) Kevin Gunderson in the dugout and they came back and beat us.

“These games are tough on both teams. It’s like taking Jorge out because he’s got to pitch this weekend; I’m not going to put anybody who’s going to pitch on the weekend for us in jeopardy on a Tuesday.”

Reyes – a freshman making the first collegiate start - worked the first five innings, allowing two runs on two hits and a hit batter while striking out six. His previous longest outing had been 3 1/3 innings at Arizona on March 30.

“For a freshman to come out in his first start, I thought he was awful good,” Casey said of Reyes. “It was a good time for us to find out how he’d do if we extended him a little bit; we had him on a pitch count, and he did a good job.”

Reyes retired the first six Pilot hitters of the game, then allowed the two runs in the top of the third inning before setting down the final seven hitters he faced.

“Coach Spence (associate head coach Dan Spencer) told me he saw a little change when I had runners on base,” Reyes said. “He told me not to think about it, to just keep doing the same things, to keep the same rhythm.”

With OSU trailing 4-3 going into the bottom of the seventh inning, Canham doubled home the tying run with one out and then scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.

Scott Santschi added a pinch-hit two-run double to left-center to put the Beavers up 7-4.

In the eighth, a hit batter, a bunt single by Mike Lissman and a pair of walks forced home an OSU run and kept the bases loaded for Jordan Lennerton.

Lennerton – who had ended Oregon State’s win over Southern California on Saturday with an 11th-inning home run – drove a pitch from Ben Panther high over the right-centerfield fence for his third home run of the season and a 12-4 Beaver lead.

“It was nice to have some big innings like that,” Canham said. “The big thing for today was our pitching staff coming out and those five guys throwing right there ... those guys coming out of the bullpen and doing the job like that is good for us.”

Blake Keitzman, Greg Keim, Anton Maxwell and Mark Grbavac followed Reyes to the mound, with Keim getting the win to improve his record to 2-1 this season and Grbavac going the final 1 1/3 innings for his third save.

Maxwell – who had given up a grand slam in the Saturday game against USC – bounced back to strike out the only two Portland hitters he faced.

Koa Kahalehoe was 2-for-4 with two runs for Oregon State and Santschi was 2-for-2 off the bench.

Darwin Barney saw his hitting streak end at nine games for OSU.

The Beavers improved their home record to 9-1 this season, and OSU is 62-10 at home since the start of the 2005 season.

The Beavers return to Pac-10 play this weekend with a home series against California, with games Friday at 5:00 PM, Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday at 1:00 PM.

All three games can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area; KKNX-AM (840) in the Eugene area and KICE-AM (940) in the Bend area.

KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area will carry the Friday game live and the Saturday and Sunday games delayed at 2:00 PM.

All three games can be heard live in Spanish on KXQR-AM (660) in the Eugene area, with the Saturday and Sunday games also being broadcast in Spanish on KXPD-AM (1040) in the Portland area and KLES-FM (101.7) in the Yakima, Wash., area.

Live audio and video are available on the internet via subscription through Beaver Nation Online at www.osubeavers.com.

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports