#5 Oregon St. (27-7, 11-4 in the Pac-12) at Sacramento St. (24-15, 12-3 in the WAC) / Raley Field / 6:30 PM PDT / No TV / KEJO 1240 AM / KPOJ 620 AM
Oregon St. took Easter weekend off, as it was their Pac-12 Conference bye week, and the 5th ranked Beavers get back in action with a 2 game, non-conference series against Sacramento St.
Tonight's first game will take place at Raley Field, the home of the Sacramento River Cats of the AAA Pacific Coast League, with tomorrow's series wrap up game, at 1 PM, back on the Hornet's campus, at John Smith Field.
The Beavers have had 7 days off since wrapping up a series win in Pullman, taking the last 2 of 3 games against Washington St.
It was a costly win in the series finale though, as first baseman Kavin Keyes suffered a broken left thumb while making a tagout play on a Cougar, and will be out of action for 5-6 weeks.
The Hornets, who lead the WAC by 2 1/2 games, took the first 2 of 3 games against Utah Valley St. last weekend, shutting out the Wolverines 5-0 and 10-0 before dropping the Saturday series finale 6-0.
Sacramento St. will start with redshirt freshman RHP Justin Dillon (1-0, 4.30 ERA). Dillon has made 5 starts in his 6 appearances, but has only accumulated 14 2/3 innings of work on the season. He has struck out 9 so far. His last outing was on April 13, when he went 5 innings against Grand Canyon, and handed off a 5-3 lead to the Hornet bullpen, but did not figure in the decision after the Antelopes, the hold down second place in the WAC, rallied for a series winning 8-6 victory.
Dillon allowed 5 hits and 2 walks, against 2 strikeouts, which translated into 3 runs.
Tuesday, the Hornets will turn to freshman LHP Sam Long (5-0, 2.17 ERA). Long has been the second starter up in weekend series for Sacramento St. since mid-March, and last pitched on Friday, going 7 innings in the Hormets' 10-0 win over Utah Valley, allowing 4 hits while striking out 5, and with no walks.
Oregon St. will go with normal Sunday starter junior LHP Jace Fry (7-1, 1.68 ERA) tonight., and probably use several arms from the bullpen at some point, as Fry will have a limited pitch count, according to Beavers' pitching coach Nate Yeski. Fry threw a season high 116 pitches in Oregon St.'s 8-1 win last Sunday at Washington St., but has had over a week's rest.
Here's the complete lineup for the Beavers for tonight:
DH - Michael Howard
2B - Andy Peterson
LF - Michael Conforto
RF - Dylan Davis
CF - Jeff Hendrix
1B - Gabe Clark
C - Logan Ice
3B - Caleb Hamilton
SS - Trevor Morrison
P - Jace Fry
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