No. 8 Oregon State Meets Evansville in Home Opener

Oregon State has won 17 of its last 19 home-openers.

OSU's Goss Stadium at Coleman Field Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS - There’s no place like home.

And Oregon State finally gets to test the veracity of that statement this week.

The eighth-ranked Beavers (14-3 overall) will get their first look of 2007 at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field when they host Evansville (9-4 overall) on Thursday at 4:00 PM, Friday at 4:00 PM and Saturday at 1:00 PM in a non-conference baseball series matching a pair of defending conference champions.

OSU -- which won not only the last two Pac-10 championships but also the 2006 College World Series title -- will be playing its first home games as defending national champs.

The Beavers will be going against an Evansville program that won both the Missouri Valley regular season and tournament titles last season.

“It should be a great weekend,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said.

“First, we’re playing a very good ballclub in Evansville and so we need to step up our performance. If we do that, there could be some terrific baseball played. Second, it’s just going to be great to be at home. It seems like we’ve been on the road forever and our guys are really looking forward to being able to stay in town for a weekend, play in their own park and play in front of their own fans for a change.”

Those fans will notice a few changes at the Beaver ballpark.

First, there’s a new scoreboard in right-centerfield, complete with video capability. Second, the infield is now covered with a FieldTurf artificial surface.

“Those are going to be some great additions for our fans and for our ballclub,” Casey said.

“The scoreboard is going to add a lot to the experience of being in our ballpark. And the new infield can really cut down on the amount of time that we might be affected by weather this time of year. Both of those are big steps forward for our ballpark.”

Oregon State -- which is playing its centennial season of varsity baseball -- is 78-19 in home-openers dating back to 1907.

Oregon State has won 17 of its last 19 home-openers and 32 of its last 35.

The Beavers come home after winning three of four games in the Domino’s Pizza Aggie Baseball Classic at Texas A&M. OSU lost to the Aggies 5-2, then beat New Mexico 6-2, beat St. Louis 2-0 and beat Texas A&M 6-5.

OSU is ranked eighth nationally in the USA Today/ESPN coaches poll, ninth by Baseball America magazine, seventh by Collegiate Baseball newspaper, and eighth in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll this week.

At the plate, OSU continues to be paced by junior catcher Mitch Canham (.408 batting average, 1 home run, 15 runs batted in). Other top hitters have been junior infielder Drew George (.400, 0, 5), freshman infielder Joey Wong (.362, 0, 5), junior outfielder Braden Wells (.341, 0, 2) and senior outfielder Mike Lissman (.328, 3, 19).

On the mound, the Beavers’ starting trio of junior righthander Mike Stutes (3-0 record, 2.86 earned run average), junior lefthander Joe Paterson (2-1, 3.14) and junior righthander Daniel Turpen (4-0, 2.45) has helped Oregon State hold its opponents to three or fewer runs in nine of 17 games.

Evansville is ranked 25th by Baseball America.

The Purple Aces have won five straight games after winning at Murray State 19-1 on Tuesday.

Last weekend, UE swept Miami (Ohio) 2-0, 3-2 and 3-2 at home and they had beaten Butler 4-1 at home last week.

The Purple Aces have been led at the plate by junior outfielder Jim Viscomi (.382, 0, 7), senior infielder Robbie Minor (.367, 0, 4) and senior infielder Kasey Wahl (.321, 0, 8).

You can hear the games live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area, KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area; live in Spanish on KXQR-AM (660) in the Eugene area.

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