| Arizona 5, Oregon State 4 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Game 1 :: Friday, March 30, 7:00 | ||
| #2 Oregon State | #25 Arizona | |
| 4 | 5 | |
| (23-4) | (23-6) | |
| L: Mike Stutes (6-1) | W: Preston Guilmet (6-0) | |
 |
vs. |  |
The Beavers didn't start the Pac-10 season off the way they would have liked, as they dropped the first game of a three game series to Arizona, 5-4. The Beavers had their chance in the top of the 8th inning when they were down by one with runners on first and second, after Darwin Barney was already able to score on a fielding error by Arizona shortstop Robert Abel. Catcher Mitch Canham was on second base, and Mike Lissman was on first. Third baseman Drew George was unable to get his sacrifice bunt down, and popped it up to the third baseman. With one out, pinch hitter John Wallace struck out as Pat Casey sent the runners, and Arizona was able to execute a strke-em-out, throw-em-out double play to end the inning, and escape the jam.
Oregon State was lucky to be in that situation, however, after two Arizona errors yeilded a run scored and runners on first and second. The first error was on a fly ball hit by Darwin Barney that was dropped, and after Mitch Canham singled to right moving Barney to third, Mike Lissman's ground ball was mishandled by the shortstop, scoring Barney.
Oregon State got out to a 2-0 lead in the first off of Mitch Canham's fifth home run of the season, a two run homer that moved him into tenth place all time in Oregon State history. Chris Hopkins was on third at the time of the two-run-shot after he led off with a triple.
The Wildcats bounced back nicely, and got one run back in the Bottom of the first. #2 hitter Colt Sedbrook walked, and then with two outs, back to back singles by Bill Rhinehart and Brad Glenn scored Sedbrook.
Arizona would not score again until the fifth inning, but they came close in the third. Mike Stutes got leadoff hitter Diallo Fan to ground out to Wong at second, but Colt Sedbrook sent a single up the middle to center to get on base with one out. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, and then CJ Ziegler was hit by a pitch (a questionable call, by the way) to put runners on first and second. Then, Rhihehart hit a double play ball to Darwin at short that should of ended the inning, but the relay by Joey Wong from second to first pulled Jordan Lennerton off the bag, putting runners on the corners with two down. Arizona attempted a delayed steal, and Mitch Canham's throw down to second was returned by Joey Wong for a close play at the plate, seen below, that resulted in the third out.
David Sanders/ Arizona Daily Star
The Beavers punched in another run in the top of the fifth, when Darwin Barney singled up the middle with runners on the corners to score Scott Santschi from third, and get his 24th RBI of the season, moving him into OSU's all time Top 10 for RBI's. This put the Beavers up by two runs, 3-1.
After the first two Arizona batters flied out to begin the fifth inning, they rallied to score four runs with two outs. Two runs scored on starter Mike Stutes before the Beavers went to the bullpen for Jorge Reyes. Reyes got two quick strikes on the first batter he faced, Dwight Childs, but Dwight ended up taking Reyes to right field for two RBI's, giving Arizona a 5-3 advantage that would remain until the eighth inning, when Oregon State pushed in a run.
The Beavers fall to 23-4 for the season, and 0-1 in the Pac-10. Their 12 game winning streak, the longest at OSU since the 80's, was snapped. The Wildcats move to 23-6 overall, and 1-0 in the Pac-10. Their winning streak is extended to nine games.
Game 2 of the series is tonight at 6:00, an hour earlier than last night. Most of us will probably be watching the Final Four, but you can always check back here for updates during the game. I'll get another Open Thread up for tonight up in a few hours.
Go Beavers!
--JB--