#2 Oregon St. (33-8, 16-4) vs. California (19-23, 7-13) / Evans Diamond, Berkeley, CA / 1:00 PM PDT / No TV / KEJO 1240 AM / KPOJ 620 AM
Game Notes / California Series Notes
Oregon St. concludes it's California trip with an afternoon affair at Evans Diamond. The Beavers will be looking for their 10th consecutive win over the Bears, and their 3rd consecutive series sweep, after an improbable 9-3 win last night in 10 innings.
After the Beavers essentially controlled most of the game, but didn't score enough runs to put the game away, the Bears rallied for a pair of 8th inning runs to tie the game at 2 apiece, and force an improbable finish.
California could have completed the comeback for the win were it not for Andy Peterson, who knocked down a hard hit ball by Chris Paul that would have scored the winning run had it gone through. Peterson then started a double play that doomed the Bear's upset aspirations, and forced the game into an extra inning, which wound up being one of the weirder ones ever.
Peterson struck again, with the RBI double that put Oregon St. ahead, and set up the opportunity for Dylan Davis to deliver what would prove to be the game winning RBI. It was just the beginning though, as the Beavers more than batted around, sending a dozen hitters to the plate, and scoring 7 runs, more than enough to withstand a single Bear run in the bottom of the inning.
The win kept Oregon St. within 1/2 game of Pac-12 leading Washington, as the Huskies clinched their series in Salt Lake City with an 11-1 win over Utah, in 1 of only 2 of 6 games involving conference teams that did not extra innings to get a decision.
California slipped to 9th place, 9 1/2 games back, falling behind Stanford when the Cardinal upset UCLA 5-0. The Bruins will be in Corvallis next weekend.
In addition to Peterson, leadoff hitter Jeff Hendrix has been hot for the Beavers, with 5 hits in the first 2 games, which has produced 4 RBIs and 6 runs scored, including a hit, a sacrifice, an RBI, and a run scored all in the decisive 10th inning last night.
Today, Oregon St. will send Sunday ace junior RHP Jace Fry (8-1, 1.76 ERA) out to try for the sweep. Last Sunday, Fry completed a weekend sweep of Oregon with a 1 hit, 1 run 8 inning outing in which he struck out 11 as the Beavers rolled to a 7-1 win.
California will counter with sophomore RHP Ryan Mason (4-0, 2.77 ERA). Mason worked 2 batters into the 9th inning last Sunday against Stanford in Palo Alto, getting the win in the Bears' 9-5 victory over the Cardinal.
Mason struck out 3 and walked 3, and allowed 6 hits, which yielded 5 runs, 4 of them earned.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com