No. 10 Beavers Clinch at Least a Share of Pacific-10 Baseball Title

Photo Courtesy: Oregonn State Barometer

PULLMAN, Wash. - Oregon State clinched at least a share of the Pacific-10 baseball championship as the No. 10-ranked Beavers beat Washington State 13-3 Sunday afternoon at Bailey-Brayton Field. Cole Gillespie homered, doubled, drove in four runs and tied the school record for runs scored in a season for OSU (38-13 overall, 15-6 Pac-10).

As the game ended, the Beavers were awating the outcome of the games that had Arizona State at Arizona and Stanford at UCLA; if both Arizona and Stanford were to win, OSU would be assured of sole possession of the Pac-10 title for the second straight season.W

Even if Arizona State or UCLA were to win one of those games, Oregon State has the chance to wrap up the championship for itself by winning one of three home games next weekend against UCLA. The Beavers and Bruins will meet Friday at 5:00 PM, Saturday at 1:00 PM and Sunday at 1:00 PM at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

On Sunday, there was a little extra spring in the Beavers` steps as they left the dugout to congratulate their teammates after the final out against the Cougars (34-21, 9-12), but no large-scale celebration.

“It was on our minds a little bit, but I really hadn`t realized what the standings were or that this could be the deciding game if we won it,“ Gillespie said. “But it`s pretty satisfying to realize we have at least a share of the Pac-10 championship. But we`re not satisfied with that, because we want it by ourselves.“

The Beavers outscored WSU 39-6 on the weekend, got complete-game wins from pitchers Dallas Buck and Jonah Nickerson and five shutout innings from Sunday starter Mike Stutes, and turned in a number of outstanding defensive plays.

“I thought we played good baseball all weekend,“ OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “We pitched and defended really well and we got the bats going when we needed to. Our guys really played at a higher level than they had the previous weekend and that was real important. This is a tough place to play; this conference is extremely difficult, so any time you go on the road and win, you feel pretty good about it.“

As far as clinching at least a share of the Pac-10 championship, Casey said: “I think that was one of the things on our guys` minds. We won it last year and it`s a challenge to stay on top, a challenge to fight the pressure, and I think our guys have handled that very well. Now we understand that we`ve got a very big weekend next weekend.“

OSU got the early jump on the Cougars as Darwin Barney drew a walk to start the game against Cougar freshman lefthander Jared Prince and then stole second; with one out, Gillespie lifted a ball over the left-centerfield fence for his 10th homer of the season to put the Beavers up 2-0.

“Coming into the game, we wanted to get up early and make them feel like they had to come from behind once again,“ Gillespie said. “I think getting those two runs took some momentum away from them. We weren`t satisfied with taking two of the three, and I think that set the tone early – we wanted to come out and sweep them.“

Bill Rowe led off the top of the second with his fourth homer of the season, poking an opposite-field shot just inside the leftfield foul pole. Barney led off the third with a triple to center and scored on John Wallace`s groundout, giving Stutes a 4-0 lead to work with by the bottom of the third inning.

“When we came out today and jumped on them early, scoring in the first three innings, Stutes was able to relax a little bit and just focus on throwing the ball. If we`re down a run, it puts a lot more pressure on the pitching staff to stay in there and battle.“

The Beavers got a big boost defensively in the bottom of the second. With two out and WSU`s Jeff Miller at second base, Paul Gran singled sharply through the right side and Miller rounded third; OSU rightfielder Scott Santschi`s throw to the plate was perfect and catcher Canham tagged out Miller to end the inning with OSU still up 3-0.

OSU`s lead was still just 4-0 in the bottom of the fifth when Gran walked and Scott Suttmeier chopped a double over first base to put runners at second and third with one out. Stutes then got Zach Franklin to foul out to Canham, then leadoff hitter Travis Coulter rolled out to first baseman Rowe to end the inning without OSU allowing a run.

It remained 4-0 going into the bottom of the sixth and the Cougars got a leadoff single from Jay Miller and Stutes walked Prince. Eddie Kunz became the first OSU reliever of the weekend, and the sophomore righthander got a flyout by Jim Murphy and a double play to end the inning.

Oregon State widened its lead to 7-0 with a three-run top of the seventh. Mike Lissman led off with a walk, then Chris Kunda and Darwin Barney delivered back-to-back run-scoring doubles and Wallace followed with a RBI single. OSU`s lead went to 8-0 in the top of the eighth as Shea McFeely walked with one out and scored on a two-out error.

The Cougars made a game of it with three runs in the bottom of the eighth, getting a double by Jared Prince, a run-scoring single by Murphy and a two-run homer by Zach McAngus against Kunz and closer Kevin Gunderson. OSU, though, put thje game away with five runs in the top of the ninth as Gillespie doubled home two runs, Canham singled home a run for his 10th RBI of the weekend, and McFeely tripled in a run and Rowe scored him with a groundout.

“Everyone was kind of having a breakout weekend, and when guys are getting on like that, it puts you in a good position to drive them in,“ Canham said. “It makes it a lot easier when every time you come up, there`s a guy standing on second or third base. Then it`s just me putting it in play and them doing a great job of getting on.“

Gillespie`s second run of the day was his 67th of the season, tying the school record set by Jason Stranberg in 1997. McFeely`s triple was his sixth of the season, tying him for second place on OSU`s all-time list of single-season leaders.

Barney was 2-for-3 with a double and a triple for OSU, Kunda was 2-for-4 with a double, Gillespie was 2-for-5 with a double, a homer and four RBIs, and Wallace was 2-for-5 with two RBIs.

It was Senior Day at Washington State. Prior to the game, it was announced that the girlfriend of one of the Cougar seniors had been selected to throw out the first pitch. Alea Conlin made the toss to boyfriend Franklin, the WSU catcher, after shaking off a sign or two; after making the catch, Franklin met Conlin near the mound, took off his cap and dropped to one knee and proposed.

Conlin said “Yes,“ and the two embraced to the applause of the crowd of 829, both teams and the umpires.

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