Pac-10 Baseball: No.16 Oregon State Home to No. 7 ASU This Weekend

The Beavers enter the series tied for fifth place in the Pac-10 race with California and Southern California.

OSU pitcher Anton Maxwell Photo: OSU Athletics

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State wraps up the home portion of baseball’s regular season this weekend, and the 16th-ranked Beavers (36-13 overall, 8-10 Pac-10) will do it against seventh-ranked Arizona State (37-12, 14-4), the leader in the Pac-10 race.

The Beavers and Sun Devils will meet Friday at 5:00 PM, Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday at 1:00 PM at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

OSU then closes out the regular season at second-place UCLA from May 25th-27th, and the Beavers are trying to collect as many wins as possible to assure the defending national champions a third straight postseason berth.

“We’re down to the final two weeks, and our fate is in our hands,” OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “If we play well, we’ve got a great chance to keep our season going on into a regional. We haven’t consistently played up to our capabilities the past two weeks, but this team has done things this season that have shown it can be an outstanding ballclub. We’re playing two great teams in the final two weeks, but if we come out and play hard and execute the game, they should be two great series.”

The Beavers enter the series tied for fifth place in the Pac-10 race with California and Southern California.

ASU leads the conference, followed by UCLA (12-6), Arizona (11-7) and Washington (9-9); following the Beavers, Bears and Trojans are Washington State (8-13) and Stanford (6-15).

Oregon State continues to lead the nation in fielding percentage with a .981 mark, and OSU’s pitching staff leads the Pac-10 in team earned run average at 3.57 and opponents batting average at .246.

Offensively, Oregon State is paced by junior catcher Mitch Canham (.352 batting average, 8 home runs, 51 runs batted in), junior first baseman Jordan Lennerton (.342, 6, 42), senior outfielder Mike Lissman (.330, 7, 49), sophomore infielder Jason Ogata (.319, 3, 32) and junior shortstop Darwin Barney (.304, 2, 41).

On Sunday, OSU will honor the five seniors on its roster: Lissman, pitcher Greg Keim, pitcher Anton Maxwell, pitcher Jake McCormick and outfielder Scott Santschi.

“All the steps that this program has taken over the past four years, those five guys have been a huge part of it,” Casey said. “They’ve helped us build Oregon State baseball into something that’s become even more special in the time that they’ve been here. Now we’ve got to put together a strong finish and reach the goals this team has set for itself.”

Arizona State is to play host to Utah Valley State on Wednesday night before traveling to Corvallis.

The Sun Devils took over first place in the Pac-10 last weekend by sweeping UCLA in Tempe by scores of 16-14, 5-4 and 11-10.

At the plate, ASU has been led by sophomore first baseman Brett Wallace (.436, 14, 70), junior outfielder Matt Spencer (.388, 7, 43), junior second baseman Eric Sogard (.384, 9, 47), sophomore catcher Kiel Roling (.382, 12, 54), sophomore catcher Petey Paramore (.381, 4, 39), junior outfielder Tim Smith (.373, 3, 24) and sophomore outfielder Ike Davis (.364, 5, 49).

The mainstays in Arizona State’s starting rotation are junior lefthander Josh Satow (9-3, 2.38) and junior lefthander Brian Flores (7-1, 4.25).

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