Pac-10 Baseball: No. 9 Oregon State Wins Pitchers Duel, 1-0

On Friday, the Beavers won their third straight game and posted their fourth shutout of the season.

Oregon State’s Mike Stutes Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - Oregon State’s Mike Stutes and Eddie Kunz combined to pitch a four-hitter as the ninth-ranked Beavers beat California 1-0 in Pac-10 baseball Friday night at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

OSU (27-7 overall, 3-4 Pac-10) scored the game’s only run when Mitch Canham led off the sixth inning with a double and scored on Mike Lissman’s single.

On Friday, the Beavers won their third straight game and posted their fourth shutout of the season. Stutes and Kunz outdueled Cal righthander Tyson Ross and a pair of relievers for the victory.

“When you’re facing the guys going every Friday night, I’m looking at it going, ‘Ross, this guy is 6-foot-6 and he throws hard,’” Stutes said. “I know I’m going to have to come out and hopefully throw a shutout. I knew it was going to be a tight game tonight because I’ve played against Ross a couple times, and he’s been great every time I’ve played against him.”

Stutes improved his record to 8-1 this season, going 7 1/3 innings and allowing three hits and four walks while striking out six. He didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning.

“I was feeling good. I just tried to come out and build off last week’s start,” Stutes said. “I was trying to get the off-speed stuff over early and just work from there.”

The Beavers helped Stutes out with four tough plays in the early going.

In the second inning, rightfielder Scott Santschi made a sliding catch to take a hit away from Jordan Karnofsky and second baseman Joey Wong added a diving stop and quick throw to rob Michael Capbarat.

In the third, it was centerfielder Chris Hopkins going to the centerfield fence and making a twisting catch on a ball hit by Blake Smith; shortstop Darwin Barney then dove to his left to make a grab and then throw out Michael Brady.

“That just adds to it,” Stutes said of the defense played behind him. “When they’re playing like that – which they usually are when I’m pitching – if I can get my rhythm going then we’re going to be a tough team to beat.”

Stutes made a play of his own to help the Beavers out of a jam in the top of the sixth inning with the score still 0-0, when he walked the first two hitters he faced.

Brett Munster then tried to sacrifice the runners over but Stutes pounced on his bunt and threw to third baseman Drew George to retire the lead runner.

“We work on those every day,” Stutes said of the play. “(Volunteer assistant coach) Kurt Steele works with us on PFP (pitchers fielding position) every day in practice; I was just trying to carry practice into the game and I just reacted.”

Ross, who had entered the game with a 2.23 earned run average and hadn’t allowed Pac-10 leader Arizona a run in eight innings last week, had blanked Oregon State on three hits through five innings.

In the sixth, though, Canham led off by drilling a one-ball, one-strike pitch into left-centerfield for a double.

Lissman followed with a smash down the leftfield line that Cal third baseman Munster managed to tip with his glove; Canham raced around third and scored as the ball trickled away.

“I just wanted to make sure the ball was down, because I didn’t want to get doubled off,” Canham said. “Once it got by, it was smooth sailing all the way in.”

Kunz entered the game with a runner at second and one out in the eighth and got a pair of groundouts to end the inning. In the ninth, he allowed just a two-out bloop single en route to his fifth save of the season.

“It’s huge,” Stutes said of winning the first game of the series. “Right now, we’re sitting in a position where we have to win pretty much every series, because going into the season all we were going for is the Pac-10 championship. We’re in the position right now where we need to win games on a consistent basis, so any time you can take a Pac-10 game, it’s huge.”

OSU’s last 1-0 win had been April 14 of last season, when Dallas Buck and Kevin Gunderson blanked Stanford in a home game.

OSU has now beaten California eight straight times dating back to the final game of a 2004 series in Berkeley.

Jordan Lennerton was the only Beaver with more than one hit, going 2-for-3 with a double.

The Beavers and Bears (17-18, 2-5) continue their series Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday at 1:00 PM.

Both 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 both games delayed at 2:00 PM.

Both games can be heard live in Spanish on KXQR-AM (660) in the Eugene area, 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.

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