Oregon St. Continues Spring Break In Arizona

#6 Oregon St. (20-5, 5-2) at Arizona (11-7, 1-6) / Hi Corbett Field / 4:00 PM AST (4 PM PDT) / Pac-12 Channel / KEJO 1240 AM / KPOJ 620 AM

Game Notes / Arizona Game Notes

Oregon St. continues their end of spring break trip to Tucson with the middle game of their series against Arizona this afternoon, under 80 degree sunny skies, and the Beavers will be looking to capture the series, after a dominating 11-2 win last night over the 'Cats in the opener at HiCorbett Field.

Ben Wetzler was dominant again, allowing only 3 hits and carrying a shutout into the 8th inning, keeping the 'Cats bats on the "struggle bus" all evening.

Were it not for continuing challenges finding a closer when its not necessary to use Scott Schultz, and when you have an 11 run lead, the best arm in the bullpen should not be making an appearance, it would have been even more lopsided.

And while Wetzler didn't need nearly as much support as he got, and he could easily have had even more (the Beavers didn't capitalize on a 1 out bases loaded opportunity), it was still easily the best night of the season with the bats, as Oregon St. hammered out 18 hits, easily eclipsing the previous season high of 1, including 3 triples.

The win snapped a 2 game losing streak for Oregon St., but extended Arizona's skids to 6 in a row in the Pac-12, and 8 overall.

It kept the Beavers within 1 game of the conference lead, behind Washington, who extended their winning streak to 8 in a row, with an 8-2 victory at USC, and UCLA, who handed Arizona St. a 7-3 loss.

It also dropped the 'Cats 5 games back, ahead of only winless Utah.

Oregon St. will send sophomore RHP Andrew Moore (2-1, 1.27 ERA) out today. Moore was an out away from a 2-1 win over Arizona St. last Saturday, with no one on base, only to give up a double and a run scoring single that tied the game. The Sun Devils went on to take the 3-2 win in 10 innings, which sparked them to taking the series the next day.

Arizona will counter with RHP sophomore Cody Hamlin (3-2, 2.60 ERA). Hamlin got hammered around by the Huskies for a dozen hits last Saturday, and all 5 of Washington's runs in their 5-2 win over the 'Cats.

Things went so well last night for the Beavers than Oregon St. head coach Pat Casey didn't even mess with the lineup much, with swapping Gabe Clark for Michael Howard as the DH in a "righty/lefty" move the only change.

Here's today's Oregon St. lineup:

SS - Trever Morrison

CF - Jeff Hendrix

LF - Michael Conforto

RF - Dylan Davis

1B - Kavin Keyes

DH - Gabe Clark

C - Logan Ice

3B - Caleb Hamilton

2B - Andy Peterson

P - Andrew Moore

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com