No. 9 Oregon State Wraps Up Baseball Homestand vs. UNLV

Nevada-Las Vegas comes into the series after being swept by Texas Christian.

Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State draws the bye in the Pac-10 schedule this week, so the ninth-ranked Beavers will play their final non-conference series of the season when they host Nevada-Las Vegas.

OSU (28-8 overall, 4-5 Pac-10) and UNLV (14-26, 3-9 Mountain West) on Friday at 5:00 PM, Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday at 1:00 PM.

The Beavers go into the series trying to return some potency to their offense after scoring six runs last weekend, when they still managed to take two of three games from California.

“Sometimes you’re just up against a pitcher who is dominant,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “Other times, you’re hitting the ball well and it just doesn’t fall. And sometimes you’re just not hitting well, period. We’ve probably had a little of all of that lately.

“The only way we can fix it is to worry about the things that we can control - being fundamentally sound, getting a good pitch to hit, making adjustments, and executing the game based on the situations that are presented us. If we can do those things, the rest will take care of itself.”

Leading OSU at the plate have been junior catcher Mitch Canham (.365 batting average, 5 home runs, 34 runs batted in), junior first baseman Jordan Lennerton (.363, 3, 28) and senior outfielder Mike Lissman (.324, 4, 37). Among the Pac-10 leaders, Canham ranks eighth in batting average, 10th in slugging percentage (.583) and fourth in on-base percentage (.486) while Lennerton is 10th in batting average and ninth in on-base percentage (.460).

OSU’s starting pitching trio of junior righthander Mike Stutes (8-1 record, 2.50 earned run average), junior lefthander Joe Paterson (5-4, 3.48) and junior righthander Daniel Turpen (6-1, 3.94) have helped the Beavers to first place in the Pac-10 in team earned run average (3.27) and team opponents’ batting average (.235).

Nevada-Las Vegas comes into the series after being swept by Texas Christian at home last weekend by scores of 13-6, 16-12 and 7-3.

The Rebels have been paced by senior outfielder Ryan Kowalski (.367, 1, 26), junior first baseman Efren Navarro Jr. (.349, 2, 26) and senior infielder Keith Smith (.335, 4, 29).

The two mainstays in the starting rotation have been freshman righthander Matt Hutchison (1-6, 6.21) and junior righthander Craig Heyer (4-5, 6.69).

RADIO: Live on KEJO-AM (1240) in Corvallis area; live 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

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