NCAA Baseball: No.4 Oregon State's Win Streak Reaches 11

Joe Paterson earned the win to improve his record to 5-1 this season.

Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - Oregon State pushed its baseball winning streak to 11 games Sunday afternoon, as the fourth-ranked Beavers beat Cal Poly 5-2 in a non-conference game at Baggett Stadium.

Joe Paterson and Eddie Kunz combined to pitch a five-hitter for OSU (22-3 overall).

On Sunday, the Beavers edged out to a 5-0 lead after five innings and then held off late-inning threats by Cal Poly.

“They’re a good club, and I thought we competed well today,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “We had an inning or two where we could have done some things better situationally, but I thought we hit some balls on the screws all day long and they made some good plays.”

The 11-game winning streak is Oregon State’s longest since 1997-98, when the Beavers had another 11-game streak covering the last eight games of the 1997 season and the first three games of the 1998 season.

The last time OSU had as long a winning streak within one season was in 1986, when the Beavers won 15 in a row.

Paterson earned the win to improve his record to 5-1 this season, pitching seven-plus innings and allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits and three walks while striking out two.

Kunz earned his fourth save of the season, getting the final six outs as he allowed one hit and one walk while striking out one.

OSU went in front 2-0 in the top of the third inning as Mustang starter Matt Leonard hit Lonnie Lechelt with a pitch and then walked Eric Ammon to star the inning.

After Chris Hopkins sacrificed them to second and third, Jason Ogata delivered a two-run single to leftfield.

Oregon State made it 3-0 in the top of the fourth inning when Braden Wells drew a two-out walk and then scored on Lechelt’s douible to left-centerfield.

The Beavers final runs came in the top of the fifth inning. Chris Hopkins led off with a single to left-centerfield and stole second, then scored on Darwin Barney’s single to right-center.

The Mustangs replaced Leonard with another lefthander, Derrick Saito, and Mike Lissman delivered a two-out single up the middle to score Barney and make it 5-0.

Saito and Eric Massingham then combined to blank the Beavers the rest of the way, with Saito striking out six in his 3 2/3 innings. That gave Cal Poly its chance to get back in the game.

In the bottom of the seventh, shortstop Barney’s two-base throwing error put pinch-hitter Quentin Cate aboard with one out.

Cate advanced to third on a groundout, then scored on Joshua Thomas’ infield single to the left side to make it 5-1.

That ended a string of 19 straight scoreless innings by OSU’s pitchers and defenders.

Oregon State had held San Francisco scoreless for the final four innings of last Sunday’s 3-2 win and blanked Cal Poly in Saturday night’s 6-0 victory.

The Mustangs’ biggest threat came in the bottom of the eighth.

Paterson hit Luke Yoder, the leadoff hitter in the order, and gave up a single to center by Logan Schafer to start the inning, and the Beavers gave the ball to Kunz.

Due up was Grant Desme, who came into the game with nine homers and 34 runs batted in; Kunz got Desme to ground into a forceout to put runners at first and third with one out.

Cleanup hitter Brent Morel then hit a flyball down the rightfield line just out of reach of rightfielder Wells to drive in Yoder to cut the gap to 5-2 and move Desme to third.

Kyle Carson’s high foul was gathered in by third baseman Lechelt at the edge of CP’s third-base dugout for the second out, then Ammon hung onto a popup as he and Lechelt collided to end the inning with OSU’s advantage still at three runs.

Kunz gave up a walk to start the ninth, then retired the next three hitters to finish the game.

It was the 17th time in OSU’s 25 games this season that the Beavers have held their opponent to three or fewer runs; it was the eighth straight game that Oregon State has held its opponent to two or fewer runs.

Lissman’s run-scoring single extended his hitting streak to seven games, while Jordan Lennerton’s streak remained at eight games as he was a late-inning defensive substitution and did not bat.

Wells was 2-for-3 with a double for the Beavers, Barney was 2-for-4 with one run batted in, and Ogata was 2-for-4 with two RBIs.

Lechelt turned in two other nifty defensive plays while playing second base for the first seven innings, going into short rightfield to cut off balls hit by Yoder and Pat Pezet to take away base hits.

Hopkins also robbed Adam Buschini of a hit in the second inning with a diving catch in centerfield.

Oregon State and Cal Poly (13-15) conclude their series Monday at 1:00 PM.

The game can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area and KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area.

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

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