Beavers Look For Sweep Of Huskies

Northern Illinois (1-11-1) vs. #5 Oregon St. (13-3) / Goss Stadium / 1:05 PM PDT / No TV / KEJO 1240 AM / KPOJ 620 AM

Game Notes

Oregon St. and Northern Illinois wrap up their 4 game series with an afternoon game, and the Beavers will be looking for their first series and weekend sweep of the season, in their last non-conference series of more than 2 games this year.

The Huskies had to be wondering if they would ever get a run across, after replacement starter Ben Wetzler, who was originally scheduled to start today, but moved up in place of Andrew Moore, who came down with the flu, shut them out 6-0 Friday night, after throwing a career high 12 strikeouts, and then Jace Fry followed that up with a no-hitter in the first game of yesterday's double header, which the Beavers won 2-0 on the strength of Dylan Davis' slump busting 2 run home run in the 6th inning.

The did finally get a couple of runs in the afternoon's second game, but by then they were already down 7-0, with much of the damage done by Jerad Casper's grand slam home run to cap the 5 run first inning.

And while Scott Schultz, himself shaking off the flu as well, did allow those 2 runs and 5 hits, he still threw an incomplete complete game at Northern Illinois, still going strong after 7 innings, when the game was called due to the 10 run rule.

Another home run, this one a 3 run blast in the 6th inning, set the stage for the early end, and the game fittingly ended on a wild pitch with the bases loaded that allowed Caleb Hamilton to score, and allow everyone to get out of the developing rain.

The 10 run rule after 7 is something widely used in some college baseball leagues that the Pac-12 should adopt for their regular season as well; another hour out in the rain yesterday wouldn't have done anyone any good.

The worst of the storm, originally forecast for today, pushed through overnight though, and though cool and damp, the artificial infield at Goss should allow the teams to complete the series today.

Northern Illinois was scheduled to start Alex Klonowski, but he was moved up to the first game yesterday, with original starter Jordan Ruckman moved back to the second game, as the Huskies attempted to adjust for the at the time very real possibility that today's game would not occur.

But as result, who get the start will be determined during pregame warmups.

The same thing applies to Oregon St., who may use Moore at some point if he's recovered from the flu sufficiently, with freshman Jake Thompson (3-0, 1.42 ERA), who worked into the 7th inning of last Tuesday's 5-0 Oregon St. win over Portland, also a possibility, though with a game Tuesday against Ohio St., the hope is to save Thompson for that game.

Coach Pat Casey has opted to try some creativity to start with, and will start Dylan Davis, who has pitched at some point in each of his seasons with the Beavers.

As a result, football double duty guy Hunter Jarmon also gets a start in right field today.

After catching part of the second game yesterday, Kavin Keyes is out of the starting lineup.

Here's today's initial Oregon St. lineup:

SS - Trever Morrison

2B - Andy Peterson

LF - Michael Conforto

1B - Gabe Clark

P - Dylan Davis

CF - Michael Howard

3B - Caleb Hamilton

RF - Hunter Jarmon

C - Logan Ice

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com