Kunda Delivers as No. 8-Ranked Beavers Beat Wright State, 5-3

Salem-News.com SPORTS

CORVALLIS - Chris Kunda`s two-out, two-run double in the bottom of the eighth inning to lead Oregon State (49-14) to a 5-3 win over Wright State on Friday evening in the first round of the NCAA Corvallis Regional baseball tournament at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. OSU (40-14 overall) will play Kansas (43-23) in the winners` bracket game on Saturday at 6 p.m.; Wright State (32-26) will play Hawai`i (43-16) in the losers` bracket game at 1:00 PM.

Approximately 600 tickets remain for the game between Oregon State and Kansas, including a limited number of reserved seats. The game can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area and KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area; live video and audio is also available via subscription on the internet at www.osubeavers.com.

Kunda – named the Pacific-10 Conference`s Defensive Player of the Year earlier this week for his play at second base – won Friday`s game with his bat rather than his glove for the Beavers before a crowd of 2,587. After watching pair of strikes from Raider closer Joe Smith, Kunda fouled off a pitch and then watched a ball before driving Smith`s next delivery into the gap in left-centerfield for the decisive runs. Tyler Graham had walked to start the two-out rally, then stole second to prompt WSU to deliver an intentional walk to Scott Santschi.

“Anytime I can contribute to the success of our offense, I`m happy. The other guys are doing a great job right now and we are looking to keep this going,“ Kunda said. “My first at bat he got ahead of me – he tried to go slider away from me my first at-bat. I had that same approach (the second at-bat), he was going to come with the same pitch. It seemed like that was his `go-to` pitch to get somebody out. Luckily he left it out over the plate and I was able to hit it where they weren`t playing.“

The Beavers, the champions of the Pac-10, were able to beat the Raiders, the Horizon League tourney champs, by picking up the runs against Smith, who had entered the game with a 3-0 record, 12 saves and a 0.75 earned run average.

“I thought Wright State really played well, I really did,“ OSU head coach Pat Casey said. I thought they competed as well as we did. I give a lot of credit to those guys for making it such a tough ball game, I thought they really played well.

“In the regionals, it is such a fine line to win. Everybody is amped up, anybody can beat anybody. I thought our club responded to their energy and our club really did some things well down the stretch.“

Wright State's Amin Abusaleh made it 3-2 on a two-out, bases-loaded single in the fifth, and the Raiders tied it in the sixth on Justin Parker's RBI groundout.

“First I want to tip my hat to Pat Casey and the Oregon State Beavers,“ Wright State head coach Rob Cooper said. “It was a heck of a baseball game, great electricity - great atmosphere. They kept pounding away and found a way to win the game. I also want to say I`m extremely proud of my team. Just like I told my team in the locker room, if you give me a chance in the late innings with this guy (Joe Smith) on the mound, I`ll take my chances every day of the week.

“The thing we told our guys going into this was to have a lot of fun and to play each pitch. If you can get to the next one, good things will happen. Our guys did that, in the ninth inning we brought the tying run to the plate.“

That came as Beaver closer Kevin Gunderson – earlier in the day named as one of five finalists for the national Stopper of the Year award – walked pinch-hitter Paul Majestic to lead off the ninth inning. But Gunderson retired the next three hitters to earn his 16th save of the season.

Eddie Kunz was credited with the pitching win for his two scoreless innings of relief work, allowing one hit and striking out one to improve his record to 5-1 this season. Beaver starter Dallas Buck went the first six innings, allowing three runs on six hits and three walks while striking out seven; he worked out of trouble several times as Wright State left seven runners on against him and four of those were in scoring position.

“Dallas kept getting them out in some clutch situations early when we couldn`t score and kept them from getting some momentum,“ Casey said. “A couple of times they had runners at third and he came up with a big strike-out. Had they put a run across the board, they may have had a bit more energy.“

Earlier in the day, Buck had been named to the Louisville Slugger All-America team as a second-team pick, as selected by Collegiate Baseball newspaper; teammate Cole Gillespie was named to the first team as an outfielder. Gillespie opened the scoring with a solo home run in the first inning, his 12th of the season. The Beavers got two more run in the fourth on Darwin Barney's bases-loaded single.

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