Oregon. St. took a 2-1 win over Oregon Wednesday night at PGE Park in Portland, their fourth consecutive one run win in Civil War baseball.
Parker Berberet lead off the fourth inning with a double, moved to third on ground out by Carter Bell, and scored on Tyler Smith's RBI single to give Oregon St. the first run of the game.
The Beavers added another run in the fifth, when Jared Norris walked, moved to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Stefan Romero's single.
The Ducks kept the game close, answering in the bottom of the fifth. Shawn Peterson doubled, and then scored on JJ Altobelli's RBI single.
Oregon St. could have given their pitching staff some breathing room, but despite out-hitting Oregon 11-4, couldn't deliver timely hits on multiple occasions.Smith could have added to the lead, but hesitated rounding second on Adalberto Santos' double to right.
The Beavers lost a chance at loading the bases due to a running miscue by Michael Miller, who was running for Romero, and wound up leaving runners on the corners.
An opportunity for an insurance run was lost when Santos tripled, but then watched three outs from third base.
Oregon St. wound up leaving 11 runners on base.
The shouting match of the night came in the sixth inning, when Smith was hit by the pitch on a bunt attempt, but it was ruled a strike by first base umpire Scott Letendre, and Oregon St. coach Pat Casey was ejected as soon as he started what became a long, loud objection to the call.
"I'm disappointed that I didn't have the chance to ask the question of how somebody can make that call standing 110 feet away when the home plate umpire tells our guy to take first base," Casey said. "When people see the replay, they can determine what the call was like, because I can't comment on it."
As a result, Casey missed seeing the Beaver bullpen turn in a solid performance down the stretch.
With saving enough pitching for the weekend Pac-10 series against Arizona a priority, Tony Bryant got his first career collegiate start, and delivered two scoreless innings. Matt Boyd (7-1) then threw four innings, and got the win. Three of the wins have come at the Duck's expense.
Pitching coach Nate Yeski and Associate head coach Marty Lees collaborated on decisions to use Ryan Gorton, Kraig Sitton, and Kevin Rhoderick, who got the save, an inning each to hold down the Ducks.
"I heard the outcome, so I'm satisfied with that," Casey said afterwards. "What's funny is we talked to our bullpen and said, ‘Here's how we're going to do it.' And I don't know how it ended up, but I know Rhoderick was on the mound, and that usually works out pretty good for us."
Oregon spread the workload as well, using six pitchers. Starter Alex Keudell left with two outs in the third inning, and Christian Jones took over. Jones (2-2) lasted until Romero's RBI hit in the fifth inning, giving up both Oregon St. runs, and got the loss. Four more relievers from the deep Duck bullpen combined to keep Oregon in the game to the end.
Almost 8,500 fans endured a chilly evening and a rain delay after the first inning of over a half hour to see the Beavers hold off the Ducks in what was probably the last neutral-site meeting between the rivals.
With PGE Park being converted to a soccer only facility, and no other sizable baseball park besides Volcanoes' stadium in Keizer in the state, there is simply no other site, unfortunate, given the sizable crowds drawn for games at PGE Park and Safeco Field in recent years.
Oregon St. (29-21, 10-14) took the season series from Oregon (37-20, 12-12) 4-1, and have an 11-2 advantage in the two years since the Oregon program was restarted. Oregon claimed the first meeting this year, 9-4, but once again suffered a one run loss, as happened in all three of the conference games in Corvallis.
"We didn't battle well enough again," Horton said. "We played crummy. That's not taking anything away from the Beavers. I think my team took about three steps backwards tonight, though. We got out-coached, out-pitched, out-hit, out-defended ... and I don't know where that effort came from. We gave away probably the first four or five innings of the game, then tried to click it on, and you can't do that against good baseball teams."
Oregon St. hosts Arizona, who has lost 7 of their last 10 games, this weekend, and probably needs to win two of three to advance to the post season. Friday's game will be at 5:30, Saturday's 2 PM start will be televised by Fox Sports Northwest, and Sunday, Senior Day, starts at noon.
Oregon may still need a win against California to advance, and would need to take two of three to ensure they finish in the top five of the Pac-10.
"I think a lot of people think we are in, and we probably are," Horton said. "I'm not sold that we're in yet though. We were going after tonight's game. We have no excuses; We got outplayed."
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com