Oregon State's first game of the day just ended and Game 2 is right on our heels, so here are some quick thoughts before we move on to coverage of the next game. Apologies for the bad grammar in advance, I'm just trying to spit out as much as I can before Game 2 starts.
Pitching: Stutes and Peavey were great today. Stutes threw six innings today and picked up his second win of the season. He also moves to 12-2 all time at Goss Stadium. He told OSU broadcaster Mike Parker after the game that he likes the ballpark because it plays big and allows you to work on your fastball as a pitcher. He says that not a lot gets out of Goss, which helped him out today with a solid lineup of UW hitters. Stutes talked about how he couldn't get any cheap strikes on the Huskies, and they'll make you pay for mistakes. UW got runners on base a lot on Stutes which set up good battles all game long. Stutes came out on top in most of those thanks to not only great pitching, but some great defense behind him. We'll get to that later, but guys like Joey Wong and Daniel Robertson helped Mike out a lot today.
This was also a good win for Mike to get given the weather. He did a good job of staying in control and not letting the weather change his game, although it's hard to avoid. In the interview with Parker, Stutes talked about how he didn't feel as sharp as he did in the first four innings against Pepperdine, but he'll take the win. He's starting to feel good about his breaking pitches, and he hopes he's on track to get back to where he was last year.
Greg Peavey came on in relief of Stutes and earned his first save of the season. He held the Huskies scoreless in four innings of work, giving up five hits.
Defense: This game suggests that the Beavers are headed towards where they were last year. The Beavers did have one error, but the good plays are starting to overshadow the mistakes. Joey Wong had two highlight reel plays today, one on a ball hit to his right that he backhanded deep in the hole, another a ground ball to his left in which he made a nice throw after a dive. Daniel Robertson had a great play on a fly ball that saved a run. UW had a runner on third and was trying tag him up at third to score a run, but Daniel threw the runner out from right field. Even Stutes said that Ortiz may not have made the tag on the UW runner, but Ryan did a good job of acting. The fielding percentage isn't where it was last year, but we can only hope that it's on the rise.
Offense: The usual guys stepped up today with big hits. Robertson had an RBI early in the game, Koa Kahalehoe got one. Ogata had a big hit in the middle of the game that scored two runs and gave the Beavers a big lead, and Ortiz continued his hot hand. Ortiz hit a double to keep his hitting streak alive, and Joey doubled as well. Solid game at the plate for the Beavs, hopefully this category is one that the Beavers can excel at this year in addition to the pitching and defense.
Those of you who watched, listened, or were at the game; Feel free to add any additional thoughts below.
GO BEAVERS!
--JB--