Pac-10 Baseball: Arizona Ends No. 2 OSU's Win Streak

OSU’s 12-game winning streak had been the Beavers’ longest since a 15-game streak in 1986.

Former Sprague star Joey Wong Photo; OSU Athletics

TUCSON, Ariz. - Oregon State’s baseball winning streak ended at 12 games on Friday night as the second-ranked Beavers fell to 25th-ranked Arizona 5-4 in the Pac-10 opener for both teams at Kindall Field at Sancet Stadium.

OSU (23-4 overall, 0-1 Pacific-10) saw the Wildcats (23-6, 1-0) score four runs in the fifth inning to win their ninth straight game.

On Friday, Mitch Canham broke into OSU’s all-time top 10 in career runs batted in and Darwin Barney earned a place in the school’s all-time top 10 for career hits.

But the Beavers had a streak of nine straight games in which they allowed two or fewer runs come to an end, and they allowed more than three runs in a game for just the eighth time this season.

“We just didn’t play well, and they’re a good club,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “The guy on the mound (UA righthander Preston Guilmet) is good and we can’t expect to win games against that kind of club without executing the game of baseball.

“We came here to win a series and we still have that chance. Obviously, we can’t win the series playing baseball like that so we just have to play better baseball Saturday.”

Guilmet pitched the complete-game win for Arizona, allowing three earned runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out 10 to improve his record to 6-0 on the season.

“We talked about him (UA righthander Preston Guilmet) bouncing his breaking ball and staying off of it,” Casey said. “We did a great job with him the first couple innings and then went to swinging at balls that were out of the zone. We just didn’t play the game very well and we got behind in some counts and gave up some swings.”

Arizona took a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, scoring four times with two out after OSU starter Mike Stutes had quickly retired the first two hitters.

C.J. Ziegler walked and Bill Rhinehart singled, then both runners advanced on a passed ball.

Brad Glenn then lofted a fly to deep centerfield that Chris Hopkins had a shot at catching, but it banged off the wall for a triple, scoring both runners and tying the game 3-3.

Stutes then walked T.J. Steele and intentionally walked Jon Gaston to load the bases.

The Beavers brought righthander Jorge Reyes into the game and he quickly got two strikes past Dwight Childs, but Childs poked his next pitch into rightfield to drive in Glenn and Steele for a 5-3 advantage.

Stutes suffered his first loss of the season, falling to 6-1 as he pitched 4 2/3 innings and allowed five runs on six hits and five walks while striking out three.

Reyes went the rest of the way, and in his 3 1/3 innings he allowed two hits and one walk while striking out four.

OSU got back within 5-4 in the top of the eighth inning. Barney’s flyball to lead off the inning was dropped for a two-base error, then Canham lined a single to right to move Barney to third.

Mike Lissman’s grounder was mishandled to score Barney and put runners at first and second with none out.

Drew George tried to bunt the runners into scoring position but popped it up for the first out, then pinch-hitter John Wallace struck out and Canham was thrown out trying to steal third for an inning-ending double play.

Oregon State had jumped out a quick 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning against Guilmet, who entered the game with a 1.70 earned run average.

Hopkins skied a triple to the left-centerfield wall to start the inning; with one out, Canham hit a drive to right for his fifth homer of the season and a 2-0 lead.

The homer ended Guilment’s string of scoreless innings at 21 2/3.

Arizona got one of those runs back in the bottom of the first against Stutes. Colt Sedbrook drew a one-out walk, then back-to-back two-out singles from Rhinehart and Glenn brought him home to make it 2-1.

The Beavers added a run in the top of the fifth inning for a 3-1 lead.

Scott Santschi and Joey Wong had one-out singles, then Hopkins grounded into a fielder’s choice to put runners at first and third with two down. Barney delivered a single back up the middle to drive home Santschi.

Canham’s two runs batted in on the first-inning homer moved him into OSU’s all-time top 10 for career RBIs with 120, matching the figure put up by Josh Carter from 1999-2001.

Barney’s hit in the top of the fifth put him on OSU’s all-time top 10 in that category, with his 185 hits tying the number by Aaron Anderson from 1988-92.

OSU’s 12-game winning streak had been the Beavers’ longest since a 15-game streak in 1986.

Oregon State and Arizona continue their series Saturday at 6:00 PM and Sunday at noon.

Saturday’s game can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area, KKNX-AM (840) in the Eugene area and KICE-AM (940) in the Bend area; Sunday’s game can be heard live on those three stations and it will be delayed at 3:00 PM on KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area.

Live audio and video for both games will be available on the internet via subscription on Beaver Nation Online at www.osubeavers.com.

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