Oregon State Stays Alive in NCAA Regional with 5-2 Win

OSU’s games in the tournament can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis-Salem area.

Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State’s Jorge Reyes and Daniel Turpen combined to pitch a seven-hitter as the 25th-ranked Beavers beat Rutgers 5-2 Monday afternoon in the NCAA Charlottesville Regional baseball tournament at Davenport Field.

Lonnie Lechelt was 3-for-4 with a home run for OSU (40-18 overall).

The Beavers now play seventh-ranked Virginia (45-14) on Monday at 3 p.m. PDT in the championship pairing of the tournament.

If the Cavaliers win, they move on to the NCAA Super Regionals; if OSU wins, the teams would play again Tuesday at 9 a.m. PDT with the winner of that game advancing.

On Monday afternoon, the Beavers reached the 40-win mark for the third straight season.

OSU committed four errors and left 13 runners on base – eight in scoring position – but managed to eliminate Rutgers (42-21), the Big East regular season and tournament champion.

“This time of year, you just take wins however you can get them,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “Offensively, we were very, very average. We had opportunities at the plate and we didn’t seize them, we didn’t compete up there in some situations. We were very fortunate to beat a very good team.”

Reyes picked up the win to improve his record to 5-3 this season, pitching six innings and allowing two runs on six hits and four walks while striking out four.

Turpen then pitched the final three innings for his second save of the season, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out two.

“I didn’t feel like I had my best stuff,” Reyes said. “I just pitched with my heart instead of my arm and that got me through it.”

It was the 28th time in OSU’s 58 games this season that the Beavers limited their opponent to three runs or fewer.

Oregon State took a 5-2 advantage in the bottom of the seventh inning on a towering home run over the leftfield bleachers by Lechelt off Rutgers reliever Matt Paterson.

It was Lechelt’s first homer since March 29, 2005, when he homered in back-to-back games in which he played against Dallas Baptist and Brigham Young for the only two hits of his freshman season.

In OSU’s three games at the tournament, Lechelt is 5-for-12 with a homer and a double; he had finished the regular season batting .211.

“I’m just seeing the ball well and relaxing, staying focused,” Lechelt said. “I’m just trying to put a good swing on the ball and it’s happening right now.”

Joey Wong was also 3-for-4 for the Beavers and Mike Lissman was 2-for-4 with a run batted in.

The Beavers had pushed their lead to 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning.

Wong led off with a single against Rutgers starter Matt Giannini, was sacrificed to second by Chris Hopkins, wild-pitched to third, and scored on Lissman’s two-out single through the left side.

Rugters drew within 3-2 on Frank Meade’s homer to leftfield in the top of the sixth inning against OSU starter Jorge Reyes.

The damage wasn’t more because the previous hitter, Tim Querns, had popped up a sacrifice bunt attempt that Reyes snagged and turned into a double play when he caught baserunner Jon Gossard off first base.

The Scarlet Knights had picked up their first run on Ryan Hill’s two-out single to right after Reyes had walked Todd Frazier and balked him to second base.

OSU scored twice in the bottom of the fourth inning to go in front 3-0.

Rutgers righthander Matt Giannini walked Scott Santschi to start the inning and Jordan Lennerton’s grounder was mishandled by Scarlet Knights third baseman Querns to put runners at first and second, then Lechelt beat out a bunt for a hit to load the bases.

With Joey Wong at the plate, catcher Meade’s throw back to the mound got away from Giannini and Santschi scored with Lennerton taking third; Wong then bounced a single up the middle to score Lennerton.

Oregon State took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Hopkins drew a leadoff walk and Jason Ogata singled; both runners broke with the pitch as Mitch Canham struck out swinging.

Meade threw to second but no infielder was covering the bag, allowing Hopkins to score and Ogata to take third.

OSU managed to hold Rutgers scoreless in the top of the first inning despite Reyes giving up a pair of walks and a double.

Catcher Canham threw out Frazier trying to steal second after he drew a leadoff walk.

Then with two out and Mike Bionde at first after another walk, Dave Williams doubled just inside first base; rightfielder Santschi dug the ball out of the corner and first baseman Lennerton’s relay to Canham was in plenty of time to get Bionde trying to score from first.

Defending national champion OSU’s games in the tournament can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis-Salem area, KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area, KKNX-AM (840) in the Eugene area and KICE-AM (940) in the Bend area and KMED-AM (1440) in the Medford area.

Live audio is available via subscription on the internet through Beaver Nation Online at www.osubeavers.com.

Live stats are available at www.ncaasports.com.

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