Oregon St. Kicks Off Stretch Drive With California

California (21-23, 9-12) at #6 Oregon St. (34-8, 14-4) / 5:35 PM / Goss Stadium / KEJO 1240 AM & KPOJ 620 AM

Game Notes / Gametracker / Live Stream

It's now May, and its coming to crunch time in college baseball, both in the Pac-12 race and NCAA wide.

The 34-8 start the 6th ranked Beavers are off to matches the 2005 team that went to the College World Series for the best record in program history through 42 games, and as a result, Oregon St. has about wrapped up hosting a first round NCAA Tournament Regional, but the Beavers are in a dogfight for both the Pac-12 Championship and an NCAA "National Seed", which would ensure hosting a super-regional if they take care of business in their regional.

California won't be getting either of those this year; an 8 game losing streak that made for losing 12 of 14 games ensured that. But the Bears are still in the hunt to at least earn a post-season bid. Their current 3 game winning streak, and 5 wins in their last 8 games, are a more relevant stat as far as what the Beavers can expect to have to contend with this weekend.

The high stakes and summery weather that's flirting with the record books make for a classic Pac-12 baseball weekend at Goss Stadium.

Oregon St. will as usual open the weekend with senior LHP Matt Boyd (8-2, 1.96). Boyd will be looking for his 20th career win, after going 8 1/3 innings to get #19 last week in the Beavers' 10-4 win over USC. Boyd was also named to the Golden Spikes Award watch list this week.

California will counter with freshman RHP Ryan Mason (5-2, 3.88). Mason went 8 2/3 innings last Friday night in Seattle, and though he allowed 9 hits, he only gave up 1 run. Mason, who is a ground-ball specialist, didn't figure in the decision in what would eventually turn out to be a 3-2 win for Washington, after the Huskies scored twice in the bottom of the 12th inning.

Oregon St. is going with a familiar lineup tonight:

Tyler Smith-SS

Andy Peterson-2B

Michael Conforto-LF

Dylan Davis-RF

Ryan Barnes-DH

Kavin Keyes-3B

Danny Hayes-1B

Jake Rodriguez-C

Max Gordon-CF

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com