Pac-10 Baseball: No. 9 Oregon State to Battle Cal in Pac-10 Series

The Beavers go into the series with Cal off of back-to-back comeback wins.

Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - Oregon State will be looking to gain ground in the Pac-10 baseball race this weekend when the ninth-ranked Beavers (26-7 overall, 2-4 Pac-10) greet California (17-17, 2-4) for a series with games Friday at 5:00 PM, Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday at 1:00 PM.

As Oregon State continues its longest homestand of the season, the Beavers will be looking to build momentum after taking two of three games from Southern California last weekend. OSU and Cal are both tied with USC for fifth in the conference standings heading into the weekend.

“It’s a big opportunity for both teams to start moving up the standings,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “And that means you’ll have two teams fighting to take advantage of that opportunity. This is the time of the season that every game takes on even more importance because of how it can move you up and down in the conference race, and you’ll have two teams this weekend fighting it out to get closer to first place.”

The Beavers go into the series off of back-to-back comeback wins.

On Sunday, OSU beat Southern California 9-8 in 11 innings as Mike Lissman’s two-run homer tied the game in the eighth inning and Jordan Lennerton’s homer in the 11th won it; on Tuesday, Oregon State scored nine runs over the seventh and eighth innings to beat Portland 12-4 in a matchup of the state’s two NCAA Division I programs.

OSU’s offense has been headed by junior catcher Mitch Canham (.381 batting average, 5 home runs, 34 runs batted in), junior first baseman Jordan Lennerton (.362, 3, 28) and senior outfielder Mike Lissman (.318, 4, 35).

Oregon State’s starting rotation of junior rigthhander Mike Stutes (7-1 record, 2.80 earned run average), junior lefthander Joe Paterson (5-3, 3.26) and junior righthander Daniel Turpen (6-1, 3.84) and a deep bullpen have helped the Beavers fashion the nation’s 20th-best team earned run average at 3.37 and OSU’s fielding percentage of .976 ranks eighth nationally.

Among the Pac-10 leaders, Canham is sixth in batting average, 10th in slugging percentage (.594) and fourth in on-base percentage (.496), while junior outfielder Chris Hopkins is tied for second in stolen bases (12). Stutes is ninth in ERA, tied for first in wins and second in opponents’ batting average (.194).

California was swept at 12th-ranked Arizona last weekend by scores of 1-0 in 11 innings, 15-12 and 5-3. The Golden Bears began Pac-10 play by winning two of three from Washington State in Berkeley.

Leading Cal at the plate have been sophomore infielder David Cooper (.366, 8, 35), freshman infielder Jeff Kobernus (.344, 0, 15), senior infielder Brett Munster (.326, 0, 15) and freshman infielder Blake Smith (.320, 2, 13).

The Bears’ rotation is headed by sophomore righthander Tyson Ross (3-4, 2.23) and junior righthander Alex Rollin (6-2, 5.29).

RADIO: Live on KEJO-AM (1240) in Corvallis area; delayed at 2:00 PM on KUIK-AM (1360) in Portland area; live on KKNX-AM (840) in Eugene area; live on KICE-AM (940) in Bend area.

Live in Spanish on KXQR-AM (660) in Eugene area, KXPD-AM (1040) in Portland area, KLES-FM (101.7) in Yakima, Wash., area.

INTERNET AUDIO AND VIDEO: Live via subscription on Beaver Nation Online at www.osubeavers.com.

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