Oregon St. Starts Series At Sunken Diamond

#6 Oregon St. (38-8, 17-4) at #25 Stanford (26-17, 11-10) / 6:30 PM / Sunken Diamond, Palo Alto, CA / KEJO 1240 AM & KPOJ 620 AM

Game Notes / Gametracker / Live Stream

Oregon St. starts their series against Stanford tonight, and it sets up a pitching classic, between 2 of the top arms in the country.

Stanford will start senior RHP Mark Appel (8-3, 1.56), and Oregon St. will counter with senior LHP Matt Boyd (9-2, 1.88). First team to plate 2 runs could well win.

The 6th ranked Beavers enter the game on a roll, having won 9 in a row, including sweeping their last 2 Pac-12 series against USC and California, and a 4-3 win over Portland in their last game. Boyd had a career high 12 strikeouts in Oregon St.'s 6-1 win over the Bears in his last outing last Friday.

The Cardinal moved back into the top 25 after taking 2 of 3 games last weekend at then 8th ranked Arizona St., but are on a 2 game losing streak, after dropping the 3rd game of the series in Tempe, and then losing 4-3 Tuesday to visiting San Francisco. Appel, who leads the nation in strikeouts, went Boyd one better last Friday, striking out 13 Sun Devils in Stanford's 5-3 win, and earning the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week honor as a result.

The Beavers have won the series their last 4 trips to Stanford's Sunken Diamond, including a sweep 2 years ago, and also took 2 of 3 games from the Cardinal last year in Corvallis, bouncing back from an 8-2 loss against Appel to claim the series with a 10 inning 5-4 win when Ryan Dunn singled with the bases loaded to score Joey Matthews.

Tonight's lineup for Oregon St. is a familiar one:

Tyler Smith-SS

Andy Peterson-2B

Michael Conforto-LF

Dylan Davis-RF

Ryan Barnes-DH

Danny Hayes-1B

Jake Rodriguez-C

Kavin Keyes-3B

Max Gordon-CF

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com