No. 25 Oregon State Takes Super Regional Opener

The Beavers and Wolverines (42-18) will meet again Monday at 4 p.m.

OSU's Braden Wells scores the winning run over Michigan Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State’s only hit of the game drove in the only run of the game as the 25th-ranked Beavers beat Michigan 1-0 in NCAA Super Regional baseball Sunday afternoon at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

Joey Wong’s two-out single through the left side scored pinch-runner Braden Wells from second base as OSU (43-18) captured the opening game of the best-of-three series.

The Beavers and Wolverines (42-18) will meet again Monday at 4 p.m.

An Oregon State win would send the defending national champions to the College World Series for a third straight season; a Michigan win on Monday would force a deciding game Tuesday at a time to be announced, with the winner of that contest advancing to the CWS.

On Sunday, OSU’s Jorge Reyes and Michigan’s Zach Putnam staged a classic pitcher’s battle, with all four hits being singles and three of those being groundballs.

Neither the Beavers nor the Wolverines could score until Wong’s roller through the left side gave Wells a chance to score, and his slide across the plate sent the crowd of 3,284 into delirium.

“This time of year, you just try to win baseball games,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “You just try to find a way to win, and fortunately for us, we did. For anybody that was there, they saw tremendous pitching from Jorge and Zach.”

Reyes, a freshman righthander was perfect through three innings and wound up allowing just three hits and no walks in his seven innings of work.

Two of the three hits he gave up were infield singles, he recorded 13 outs via groundouts, and he started 20 of the 25 hitters he faced with strikes.

“Coach (Dan) Spencer was calling a lot of fastballs,” Reyes said. “I was just throwing it for strikes and I felt like I had some command with it.”

Putnam, a sophomore righthander, was perfect for 5 1/3 innings and still had the no-hitter going through 8 1/3 innings; he finished by allowing just the one hit and three walks while striking out eight.

After OSU’s Chris Hopkins led off the game by flying out to the left-centerfield fence, Putnam retired the next 20 Beavers on either strikeouts or groundouts.

“Zach was absolutely phenomenal,” Michigan coach Rich Maloney said of Putnam, who entered the game with an 8-4 record and 4.13 earned run average. “He pitched his best game on national television ... it’s unfortunate that we came out on the losing end of it today because he deserved better than that. We couldn’t scratch a run through and you have to give a lot of credit to Oregon State for their pitching and defense, as well.”

Oregon State’s Scott Santschi drew a walk to start with top of the ninth inning (OSU was the designated visiting team); he’d broken up Putnam’s perfect game bid by drawing a walk on a full-count pitch with one out in the sixth inning.

Lonnie Lechelt sacrificed pinch runner Braden Wells to second, then Putnam fanned Chris Hopkins.

Wong swung and missed at Putnam’s first pitch, then fouled one off at home plate.

On a no-ball, two-strike count, he poked a roller that got through the left side of the infield for the Beavers’ first hit of the day.

“It was another split(finger fastball) – he’d been throwing them all day, making us look silly,” Wong said. “I wasn’t going to try and guess a pitch since that splitfinger is so dangerous, so I was just going to go away no matter what the pitch was.”

Wells broke from second and rounded third as Michigan leftfielder Derek VanBuskirk came up throwing.

The ball may have arrived a moment before Wells, but he slid in foul territory and swiped his hand across the plate before catcher Doug Pickens could apply the tag.

“With Joey at the plate and two outs, I was going on every swing and just trying to get a good jump,” Wells said. “From the crack of the bat, I just took off. I’m pretty sure (third base) coach (Marty) Lees had his arms waving before Joey hit the ball.”

OSU had turned to Joe Paterson in relief of Reyes to start the eighth inning and he ended up getting his third postseason win for his 1 1/3 innings of work; he’s now 10-6 this season.

In the ninth, he retired Brad Roblin on a soft liner to first baseman Jordan Lennerton to start the inning, then saw Nate Recknagel single to put the tying run on base and bring the winning run to the plate in Putnam.

Oregon State turned to closer Eddie Kunz, who got Putnam on a chopper to shortstop Darwin Barney that allowed pinch runner Kenny Fellows to advance to second base and into scoring position.

Kunz then retired Adam Abraham on a groundout to second baseman Wong to wrap up the win and get his 11th save of the season.

Wong also made a key defensive play that kept Michigan from scoring in the bottom of the fifth inning.

The Wolverines’ Derek VanBuskirk managed an infield single with two out, then stole second.

Kevin Cislo followed with a slow grounder between the mound and first base and both Reyes and Lennerton converging on the ball; Reyes field it and flipped to an uncovered first base as VanBuskirk went to third.

Wong, though, had raced toward first base and he slid and knocked the ball down behind the bag, keeping VanBuskirk from scoring on the play.

Reyes then got Eric Ross to hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning with the score still 0-0.

After losing a load of key players from the Beaver teams that advanced to the College World Series, the efforts of freshmen Reyes and Wong now have OSU one win away from a third straight trip.

“One thing I tell these guys when they go home for Christmas is, you aren’t a freshman anymore,” Casey said, gesturing to Reyes and Wong seated near him in the interview room. “You are going to be in the heat.”

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