Oregon St. broke a streak of losing their last four Pac-10 series, and stopped Oregon's streak of having won four straight conference series, with a 2-1 win Friday night, scoring in the bottom of the tenth inning, and 4-3 Saturday afternoon, this time in the bottom of the eleventh inning, to take the first two games of Civil War basball.
Both times, the Beavers' winning run came when the Ducks threw the ball, and the game, away.
Brent Warren, pinch running for Andrew Susac, scored Friday night when Oregon's KC Serna got trailing runner Carter Bell, and attempted to get Michael Miller at first for a double play. But the throw was off line, and got past Oregon pitcher Scott McGough, enabling Warren to score from second.Susac and Bell had reached base on consecutive hit by pitch episodes before the errant throw that ended the game.
Oregon took a one run lead in the fifth when Curtis Raulinaitis singled to drive in Jack Marder. Oregon St's. Stefan Romero tied the game with a solo homer off Tyler Anderson in the seventh inning.
Starter Greg Peavey went 7 1/3 innings, but got a no-decision for the Beavers. Kraig Sitton took over, and Kevin Rhoderic (2-1) worked came in to get the Beavers out of the eighth inning, and finished the game.
Saturday, it was a wild pitch by Joey Housey with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eleventh that allowed Ryan Barnes to score the winning run.
Susac had again set the table, with a leadoff single, and Barnes came in to run for him. Rob Folsom advanced Barnes to second with a single, and a Housey throwing error attempting to throw out a bunting Tyler Smith had advanced Barnes to third.
Alberto Santos led off the bottom of the first with a hit, and Romero homered to left center to open a 2-0 Oregon St. lead. Santos added an unearned run for the Beavers in the third inning for a 3-0 lead when the Ducks' starter Justin LaTempa uncorked a wild pitch.
The lead held up until Oregon scored three times in the top of the ninth inning, rallying with Oregon St. two outs from the win.
Starter Tanner Robles and Tyler Waldron combined to shut out Oregon for eight innings, but when pitching coach Nate Yeskie removed Robles, who was a bit wild, but still had a shutout working in the fourth inning, it took Robles by surprise, and looked risky, but the bold moved worked out.
Sitton gave up two runs, and Marder's triple off Rhoderic, and over Santos' head, after Santos appeared to misjudge how deep the ball was hit, scored Danny Pulfer, and tied the game.
Matt Boyd (5-1) worked both the extra innings on the mound for Oregon St., and picked up the win.
Oregon lost despite 13 hits, and getting their leadoff hitter on base most innings in the game, and six straight.
"We will take that win for sure," Beavers' head coach Pat Casey said. "We should have won in nine, but it doesn't matter how long it takes. Friday night's win was also a very important win, to start the series well. Friday night sets the tone for the rest of the series."
Oregon St.'s (23-17, 6-11) two wins over fifteenth ranked Oregon (30-17, 10-10) extended the Ducks' losing streak to three games.
Saturday's sunny weather drew the largest crowd of the season, as 3,059 fans took in the four hour game, despite it also being televised on Comcast and Fox Sports Northwest. The Civil War series concludes Sunday, with a 1:05 PM first pitch Mother's Day game.