Oregon St. (2-1) vs. Fresno St. (2-0) 1:05 PM, KKOV 1550.
It's Monday, and President's Day. If you are one of the fortunate few who have the day off, what better way to enjoy if than to listen in on Oregon St. baseball. If you are at work, you probably can't pop open a cool one, but you can replace that afternoon white noise with Jay Reese's call of the the what Major League Baseball refers to as the "get away game", that day time game at the end of a series that allows you to catch an evening flight, and get home by midnight.
Oregon St. swept their games with Gonzaga to start the weekend. The Beavers won Saturday 4-3 in 11 innings, when Tyler Smith singled with the bases loaded to score left fielder Brian Stamps for the third time in the game. It was Stamps' first career start; what a way to begin!
Sunday afternoon, the Beavers downed the 'Zags 4-2, as both Carter Bell and Jordan Poyer had a pair of hits, and the Oregon St. pitching staff turned in a solid job. Ben Wetzler in his first game for the Beavers carried a 4-1 lead thru 4 1/3 innings, and Scott Schultz, also in his first game for Oregon St. got the win.
Fresno St. was a different bunch of Bulldogs though.
Oregon St. allowed just 6 hits, and only 2 runs, but Fresno St.'s Greg Gonzalez limited the Beavers to only 2 hits, which produced only a single run, by Parker Berberet.
Fresno St., who also beat Gonzaga this weekend, got the lead in Sunday night's game when Brennan Gowens homered off Cam Booser, another Beaver in his first game, in the fourth inning. A balk contributed to what would be the winning run, advancing Aaron Judge who had singled into scoring position. When Danny Muno singled to center, if gave Fresno St. all the runs their pitching staff would need.
Oregon St. will need another good outing from their young pitching staff in order to get out of town with a 3-1 record, but a split is the worst that could happen.
Josh Osich, who had only 1 start in 2009, and has recovered from Tommy John surgery, is finally healthy, and gets the start today. Osich will be limited to in the vicinity of 40 pitches, depending on how things go.
Open a bag of peanuts and follow along here as we see how the season starts for the Beavs!
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com