NO. 8 Beavers Clinch Outright Pacific-10 Baseball Title

Salem-News.com Sports

CORVALLIS - Oregon State assured itself sole possession of the 2006 Pacific-10 baseball championship Friday night as the No. 8-ranked Beavers beat UCLA 9-2 at Goss Stadium at Coleman Field.

Cole Gillespie was 3-for-5 with a home run, a triple, a double and three runs batted in and Dallas Buck pitched four-hit ball over seven innings for OSU (39-13 overall, 16-6 Pacific-10), which earned the outright title for the second straight season.

The Beavers and Bruins (31-23, 12-10) continue their series Saturday at 2:00 PM and conclude it Sunday at 12:30 PM. Both games can be heard live on KEJO-AM (1240) in the Corvallis area; on KUIK-AM (1360) in the Portland area, Saturday`s game can be heard live and Sunday`s game will not be broadcast.

Both games can also be seen and heard live via subscription on the internet at www.osubeavers.com.

Approximately 125 tickets remain for each of the remaining games of the series, and they will go on sale at the ballpark two hours before the scheduled first pitch each day.

In the clincher, Oregon State scored in every inning but the third and collected 17 hits while Buck and Kevin Gunderson limited UCLA to six. The crowd of 2,132 was a sellout but less than capacity as the threat of rain kept some fans away on a cool evening.

There was no dampening of OSU`s celebration, though, as the Beavers wrapped up the Pac-10 championship and the conference`s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

As fans filed out of the ballpark – where Oregon State improved its home record to 22-3 this season – many stopped to buy shirts and hats commemorating the Pac-10 championship.

“It`s exciting,“ Gillespie said. “This is what we came out here to do tonight. We wanted to take it on Friday, because we didn`t want to share it. We wanted it outright, so this is a good feeling.“

Said OSU head coach Pat Casey: “It`s a good feeling, because I know how hard our guys have worked. We had some pretty good players last season and we lost some of those people. For us to be picked to win it (by the Pac-10 coaches in their preseason poll) and maintain that throughout the year has been fantastic. I can`t tell you how proud I am of guys who have stepped up. We`ve gotten great production out of some people. We asked Cole to step up and be a leader for us before the Cal series, and he has."

“And that`s a good club we played tonight, a very good club – a club that`s going to play in a regional and give some people some trouble.“

Gillespie`s two-run homer capped a three-run fourth inning that put OSU up 5-1; it was his 11th homer of the season, tying him for 10th place on the Beavers` all-time list of career leaders. He also had a run-scoring triple in the bottom of the sixth inning and then doubled and scored in the eighth.

“In big games, I want to come out and shine,“ Gillespie said. “I just want to help my club out, and it got us going early and we never looked back. Dallas is always relentless and he did a heck of a job, so we`re excited.“

Bill Rowe also homered for OSU and Mitch Canham and Scott Santschi added doubles, but the biggest hit of the night for OSU may have been the shortest. With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the second inning, OSU had Tyler Graham at second base and Scott Santschi at first as Darwin Barney came to the plate with two out.

Barney squibbed a ball in front of the plate and the Bruins tried to throw him out at first but couldn`t get the ball there ahead of the speedy OSU shortstop. OSU third base coach Marty Lees noticed that UCLA had no one covering the plate at that point and waved Graham home to put the Beavers ahead 2-1.

“Little things like that can spark us – it`s not always the long ball,“ Gillespie said. “Darwin has been getting on base for us ever since he moved into the leadoff spot. Everyone is just doing a heck of a job right now.“

Buck, who had walked five hitters through the first two innings – including three in the second, when UCLA tied the game at 1-1 – the retired 16 of the next 17 hitters he faced as the Beavers built their lead.

“It was the normal deal – if I get through the first couple innings, it`s usually pretty smooth,“ Buck said. “I wasn`t going to let two leads get away. I let the first one slip away a little bit, but they came back and kept scoring.“

Buck improved to 11-2 this season, putting him in a tie for third place on OSU`s all-time list of season wins leaders; his 26-9 career record puts him alone in sixth place on the Beavers` all-time career wins list. In seven-plus innings, the junior righthander allowed the two runs on four hits and five walks while striking out seven.

“We expected a low-scoring game because (UCLA starter) Hector Ambriz has been outstanding,“ OSU head coach Pat Casey said. “We came out and got on the board early and that helped, and I thought Dallas was great … I don`t think he was pressing as much as he was frustrated with himself a little bit because I think he felt he lost his command there for a couple of hitters, and it bothered him because he felt he had good stuff.“

As Buck began setting down the Bruins, OSU made it 6-1 on Bill Rowe`s one-out homer to center in the fifth inning, then 7-1 in the sixth when Barney singled and scored on Gillespie`s triple.

In the seventh, Shea McFeely led off with a single and scored on Graham`s single up the middle; UCLA got within 8-2 when Chris Jensen led off the eighth with a homer and that`s when OSU replaced Buck with Gunderson.

The Beavers` final run came in the bottom of the eighth as Gillespie doubled and scored on a single by Shea McFeely, who earned a spot on OSU`s all-time list of career leaders in total bases.

Barney was 3-for-4, Santschi was 2-for-3, Graham and Rowe were both 2-for-4 and McFeely was 2-for-5 for OSU. During Oregon State`s current five-game winning streak, the Beavers are averaging 9.4 runs and 14.2 hits per game; that streak started when Barney moved into the leadoff spot in the OSU batting order.

“We`ve got the bats going pretty good right now,“ Casey said. “We did a good job at Washington State; I was really impressed with our effort up there, because that`s a good club, too.

This conference is just outstanding, and for us to start out 1-2 (after losing the conference-opening series at Southern California) and now we`ve gone 15-4 or something like that – these guys have really put together a great stretch of games. They give us an effort, and any time somebody gives you an effort, I`ve got no complaints.“

With sole possession of a second straight Pac-10 title secured, the Beavers now play the final two games with an eye on improving their seeding for the NCAA tournament.

“We`ve said from the beginning that we`re going to play one game at a time, and that`s what we`re going to do,“ Casey said. “UCLA is a very, very good baseball team and we have to come out and play good baseball. We have to play one at a time.“

The 16 sites for the regional tournaments will be announced on Sunday, with the entire 64-team field and its pairings announced Monday.

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