Nickerson, Kunda Lead No. 8 Beavers Past Kansas, 11-3 in Regional

O.S.U.'s Jonah Nickerson Photo Courtesy: OSU Barometer

CORVALLIS - Jonah Nickerson became Oregon State`s career strikeout leader and Chris Kunda homered twice, driving in five runs, as the No. 8-ranked Beavers beat Kansas 11-3 in the winners` bracket game Saturday evening at the NCAA Corvallis Regional baseball tournament at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field. OSU (41-14 overall) took control of the game with a seven-run second inning against the Jayhawks (43-24).

The Beavers are now guaranteed a chance to play for the championship. Kansas and Hawai`i (44-16) will meet Sunday at 1:00 PM; the winner will face Oregon State at 6:00 PM If OSU wins the second game of the day, it wins the tournament, but a win by Kansas or Hawai`i against OSU would send the tournament to a winner-take-all game Monday at 2:00 PM.

There are approximately 600 tickets – including a limited number of reserved seats – remaining for Sunday`s games and they can be purchased at the ballpark. Sales for the game between Hawai`i and Kansas will begin when the gates open at 11:00 AM; sales for the game between that winner and OSU will go on sale during the fifth inning of Sunday`s first game.

OSU`s game Sunday can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area and KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area. Live audio and video is also available via subscription on the internet for both of Sunday`s games at www.osubeavers.com.

In front of Saturday`s sellout crowd of 2,967, Nickerson fanned eight in his 7 2/3 innings of work to give him 273 for his career, surpassing the 267 strikeouts that Mason Smith had from 1991-94. Nickerson retired the first 11 hitters he faced until issuing a fourth-inning walk, and he didn`t allow a hit until Brock Simpson`s two-out solo homer in the top of the fifth.

By then, OSU had gone up 9-0. Kunda`s three-run homer to left-center capped the Beavers` seven-run second inning, then he added a two-run drive over the leftfield fence in the bottom of the fourth to chase Kansas starter Sean Land.

“We beat a very good team tonight,“ OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “Jonah Nickerson pitched great and we were able to get a little momentum with that big inning.“

Nickerson tied and broke the record with back-to-back strikeouts to start the top of the second inning, getting both Gus Milner and Erik Morrison looking. Kansas had gone into the game having won eight straight games, including sweeping four games for the championship of the Big 12 tournament and beating Hawai`i in the first game of the regional; the Jayhawks had averaged 7.4 runs and 11.1 hits per game during that streak.

"Our plan at the beginning was just to go after them with fastballs,“ Nickerson said. “We thought if I could locate the fastball and get some early swings, I could go deeper into the game. It seemed to work outmost of the game. I guess I got a little away from it later on. That's when I started having some trouble.“

Nickerson, who improved his record to 10-4 this season with the win, gave up another solo homer to Ryne Price to start the eighth inning. He and Kevin Gunderson wound up combining on a four-hitter for the victory.

“We kind of got buried at the beginning of the game,“ Kansas coach Ritch Price said. “Jonah Nickerson was the story of the whole ballgame, he was outstanding. He completely dominated us with his fastball. He was able to command the zone on both sides of the plate.

“We have seen a lot of good arms over the course of the season, but he (Nickerson) is as good as we have seen. He is as good as advertised. I was told before the series he was probably going to be a second- or third-round draft choice; he did a really nice job today. I was somewhat surprised he was able to dominate us with his fastball; he didn`t use his breaking ball much. We didn`t do a very good job handling his fastball.“

When Kunda homered in the second, it was his first home run since April 17, 2005 at Arizona; that homer had been his only home run since he hit five in his freshman season of 2003. It came a day after he had doubled home the winning runs in the Beavers` 5-3 win over Wright State in the eighth inning Friday night.

“I don't know - I guess I'm just seeing the ball well,“ Kunda said. “Everything that's coming in is big as a beach ball, as a lot of guys like to say. I'm just thankful that I put the fat part of the bat on the ball and two of them happened to carry out.“

Added Casey: “He is just seeing the ball really well right now. He is doing a great job for us. We had him hit in the nine-hole (in the batting order) yesterday and the two-hole tonight. You look back at some of the World Series of late and you see a lot of second basemen who have come up big at the plate.“

The Beavers` seven-run second inning got its start when Tyler Graham legged out an infield single on a ball hit into the hole between second and third base, then stole second. After Mitch Canham reached on an error, Mike Lissman blooped a double into rightfield to drive in the game`s first run, Bill Rowe walked to load the bases, Ryan Gipson walked to force in a run, and Darwin Barney singled up the middle to drive in two runs; Kunda then unloaded his first homer to wrap up the inning`s scoring.

After Kunda`s second homer in the fourth inning, the Beavers got their final runs on Cole Gillespie`s two-run double down the leftfield line in the bottom of the eighth. It was Gillespie`s third double of the game, tying the OSU single-game record; that had last been accomplished by Kunda on April 1 in the second game of a doubleheader against Texas-Pan American. Kunda`s two-homer game was the Beavers` first since Danny Anderson homered twice against St. John`s on June 5, 2005 in the final game of last season`s Corvallis Regional.

NO. 8 OREGON STATE 11, KANSAS 3

Kansas 000 010 020 – 3 4 1

Oregon State 070 200 02X – 11 11 1

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